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ROGER  WILLIAMS 


Detail  of  Roger  Williams  Statue, 
Roger  Williams  Park,  Providence 


ROGER  WILLIAMS 


BY 

MAY   EMERY   HALL 

Author  of  "Dutch  Days,'*  **Jan 
and  Betje,'*  etc. 


The  Seal  of  Roger  Williams 


THE    PILGRIM    PRESS 

BOSTON  CHICAGO 


GOPYRIOHT  1917 

Bt  frank  M.  SHELDON 


THE  PILGRIM  PRESS 
BOSTON 


FOREWORD 

For  much  of  the  data  contained  in  this 
biography  of  Roger  Williams,  I  am  in- 
debted to  the  following  authorities: 

Narragansett  Club  Publications; 

Memoir  of  Roger  Williams,  by  James  D. 
Knowles ; 

Roger  Williams:  the  Pioneer  of  Re- 
ligious Liberty,  by  Oscar  S.  Straus; 

Roger  WiUiams,  by  Edmund  J.  Car- 
penter; 

Records  of  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island 
and  Providence  Plantations; 

History  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  by 
Samuel  Greene  Arnold; 

Rhode  Island:  Its  Making  and  Its 
Meaning,  by  Irving  Berdine  iRichman; 

Providence  in  Colonial  Times,  by  Ger- 
trude Selvi^yn  Kimball; 

Annals  of  the  Town  of  Providence,  by 
William  R.  Staples; 

Winthrop's  Journal. 

My  sincere  thanks  are  due  Mr.  Howard 


M'^G-HH-^^ 


vi  FOREWORD 

M.  Chapin,  Librarian  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Historical  Society,  for  the  illustrations  of 
the  Charter  House,  statue  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams and  the  Roger  Williams  seal,  also  for 
permission  to  photograph  the  Roger  Wil- 
liams compass,  and  for  other  substantial 
assistance  rendered  in  the  preparation  of 
this  little  volume. 

I  desire,  too,  to  express  my  thanks  for 
the  story  of  the  Roger  Williams  watch 
given  by  Mr.  Henry  Russell  Drowne  of 
New  York  City  and  photograph  of  the 
same. 

The  Author. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword v 

Introduction xi 

I    Out  of  the  Shadows 3 

II    Westward,  Ho! 15 

III  New  Neighbors 23 

IV  The  War  of  Words 38 

V    "A  Corner  for  the  Persecuted"  .  52 

VI    The  Pequot  War 68 

VII    The  Indian  Key 80 

VIII     In  Quest  of  the  Charter      ...  93 

IX    Narragansett  Days 108 

X    The  Charter  on  Trial 120 

XI    The  Second  Mission 128 

XII    Roger  Williams  as  Colonial 

President 142 

XIII  The  Coming  of  the  Quakers     .     .  156 

XIV  Roger  Williams  as  Citizen    .     .     .  169 
XV    King  Philip's  War 185 

XVI    Back  to  the  Shadows 200 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Detail  of  Roger  Williams  Statue      Frontispiece 

FACING  PAOB 

Entrance  to  Charter  House,  London     .  10 

The  Roger  Williams  Tree 46 

The  Williams  Street  Monument    ...  56 

The  First  Baptist  Church  op  Providence  78 

Canonicus  Bridge,  The  Betsey  Williams 

Cottage,  Roger  Williams  Park    .     .  120 

Statue  of  Roger  Williams,  Roger  Wil- 
liams Park 162 

Roger  Williams'   Pocket-Compass,   Sun- 

DiAL  AND  Watch 206 


INTRODUCTION 

The  new  Life  of  Roger  Williams  is  cer- 
tain to  receive  a  cordial  welcome  and  a  wide 
reading.  It  has  been  eight  years  since  Dr. 
Edmund  J.  Carpenter  published  his  "Roger 
Williams,  a  Study  of  the  Life,  Times  and 
Character  of  a  Political  Pioneer,"  and 
twenty-three  years  since  the  admirable  work 
by  Oscar  S.  Straus,  entitled  "Roger  Wil- 
liams, the  Pioneer  of  Religious  Liberty," 
appeared.  In  the  meantime  Irving  B. 
Richman  has  given  to  the  public  his  able 
volumes  on  "Rhode  Island,  its  Making  and 
its  Meaning,"  which  naturally  and  inevit- 
ably portrayed  the  character  and  service  of 
its  great  founder.  Rhode  Island  was  but 
the  incarnation  of  the  views  and  principles 
of  Roger  Williams. 

In  view  of  these  recent  biographies,  added 
to  several  which  had  been  written  previously 
and  the  large  place  which  Roger  Williams 
fills  in  all  publications  on  New  England  his- 
tory, it  may  be  asked,  "Is  there  a  demand  for 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

a  new  Life?"  It  may  be  answered  emphat- 
ically, "Yes,  if  it  is  written  in  the  attractive 
and  popular  style  in  which  Mrs.  Hall  has 
done  her  work."  She  has  made  herself 
familiar  with  the  facts  of  Roger  Williams' 
life  so  far  as  known,  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Puritan  age  and  the  causes  which  led  to  his 
banishment,  with  his  advanced  views  of  re- 
ligious liberty,  his  courageous  efforts  to 
defend  them  and  his  heroic  self-denials  and 
sufferings  to  incorporate  them  in  human 
government,  with  the  reasons  which  justify 
the  title  now  universally  given  to  him  as  "the 
pioneer  and  apostle  of  soul  liberty,"  with 
the  evidences  of  his  humane  and  forgiving 
spirit  toward  those  who  had  persecuted 
him  and  his  wonderful  success  in  preserving 
them  more  than  once  from  slaughter  by  hos- 
tile Indians,  with  his  deep  and  abiding  in- 
terest in  the  native  tribes  and  his  labors  for 
their  moral  and  spiritual  elevation,  with  his 
success  in  acquiring  their  barbarous  lan- 
guage, winning  their  confidence  and  turning 
many  of  them  from  their  idolatry  and  super- 
stitions to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God 
and  the  acceptance  of  Christian  truth,  which 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

labors  place  him  side  by  side  with  John 
Eliot,  the  Puritan  apostle  to  the  Indians. 
With  all  these  things  Mrs.  Hall  has  made 
herself  familiar,  and  also  with  his  noble  ser- 
vice, often  rendered,  as  a  wise  statesman  and 
recognized  peacemaker  among  the  turbulent 
elements  in  his  little  colony  as  well  as  be- 
tween the  natives  and  the  Puritan  settlers, 
with  his  recognition  by  the  British  Parlia- 
ment as  a  scholar  of  exceptional  ability  and 
an  eminent  philanthropist,  when  they 
granted  his  request  for  a  charter  for  his  im- 
periled venture,  and  also  with  his  intimate 
acquaintance  with  some  of  the  distinguished 
leaders  of  the  Englanc^  of  his  day,  viz., 
Cromwell,  Milton  and  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Jr., 
and  she  has  told  the  wonderful  story  in  a 
manner  that  will  charm  and  instruct  readers, 
both  old  and  young. 

The  life  of  Roger  Williams  was  sur- 
rounded with  not  a  little  of  romance — the 
uncertainty  of  the  date  and  place  of  his 
birth,  his  discovery  and  patronage  by  the 
eminent  jurist,  Sir  Edward  Coke,  his  un- 
fortunate first-love  experience,  his  migra- 
tion to  the  wilderness  of  the  new  world,  his 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

expulsion  by  his  companions  from  their 
primitive  society,  who  found  him  a  disturb- 
ing element  by  reason  of  his  advanced  po- 
litical opinions,  his  retention  of  the  esteem 
and  friendship  of  some  of  the  ablest  men 
who  drove  him  out  because  of  his  "pestilen- 
tial doctrines,"  as,  for  instance,  the  Win- 
throps,  father  and  son,  with  whom  he  kept 
up  an  affectionate  correspondence  as  long 
as  he  lived  (more  than  one  hundred  of  his 
letters  to  them  have  been  preserved),  and 
the  remarkable  success  of  his  "lively  experi- 
ment," which  has  given  to  him  an  honored 
and  conspicuous  name  with  all  modem  his- 
torians and  has  exerted  an  influence  upon 
human  government  which  is  rapidly  encir- 
cling the  globe.  Roger  Williams  was 
charged  by  his  Puritan  neighbors  with  hav- 
ing "a  windmill  in  his  head."  Not  only 
Rhode  Island  and  Massachusetts,  but  the 
whole  nation,  from  ocean  to  ocean,  is  now 
enjoying  the  priceless  grist  which  that  de- 
spised windmill  ground  out.  It  looks  as  if 
Roger  Williams  was  fast  coming  into  his 
own.  Prof.  Romeo  Elton  said  in  his  "Life 
of  Roger  Williams,"  published  sixty-three 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

years  ago,  "His  property,  his  time  and  his 
talents  were  devoted  to  the  promotion  of 
the  temporal  and  spiritual  welfare  of  man- 
kind, and  in  conducting  to  a  glorious  issue 
the  struggle  to  unloose  the  bonds  of  the  cap- 
tive daughter  of  Zion."  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  in  his  "Massachusetts,  its  Histo- 
rians and  its  History,"  frankly  declares, 
"Massachusetts,  in  the  person  of  her  minis- 
ters and  magistrates,  missed  a  great  destiny 
by  rejecting  Roger  Williams." 

We  of  to-day  undoubtedly  look  upon  the 
Puritans  with  more  charity  and  a  greater 
appreciation  of  their  spirit  and  excellences 
than  did  those  of  a  former  generation.  We 
recognize  their  great  virtues  as  well  as  their 
glaring  faults.  They  were  men  of  sterling 
character,  of  deep  religious  convictions,  of 
willingness  to  make  painful  sacrifices  for  the 
sake  of  principle,  of  great  reverence  for  the 
Bible  and  the  institutions  of  religion,  of 
purity  of  life  in  the  home  and  in  their  social 
relations.  They  believed  that  religion  was 
the  supreme  thing  and  that  the  command- 
ments of  God  were  of  binding  obligation 
upon  all  intelligent  moral  beings.     They 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

may  have  been  too  rigid  in  their  interpreta- 
tions and  too  severe  in  their  application  of 
religion  to  life  and  conduct,  as,  for  example, 
in  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath.  But  in 
our  day  of  extreme  and  dangerous  neglect 
men  are  saying,  "There  are  some  things  that 
are  worse  than  a  Puritan  Sabbath."  It 
might  be  well  for  modern  life  if  we,  the 
descendants  of  the  Puritans,  had  inherited 
more  of  their  virtues. 

Of  course  in  the  matter  of  the  separation 
of  chiu'ch  and  state  they  were  still  in  the 
bonds  of  ignorance.  Though  they  had 
broken  away  from  the  persecuting  hand  of 
the  mother  land  and  "the  mother  church," 
as  they  loved  to  call  it,  they  had  not  broken 
away  from  the  belief  which  was  the  source 
and  instigator  of  the  persecuting  spirit.  As 
Prof.  John  Winthrop  Platner  has  said  re- 
cently in  his  "King's  Chapel  Lecture"  on 
the  Congregationalists,  "The  connection  be- 
tween church  and  state  was  also  close,  in 
spite  of  their  theoretical  separation,  so  close 
in  fact  that  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  has  often  been  described  as  a  theocracy. 
.  .  .  They  believed  that  no  human  govern- 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

ment  could  be  firmly  established,  unless 
based  upon  the  divine.  .  .  .  The  mixture  of 
law  and  religion  of  course  gave  rise  to  dif- 
ficulties, and  aroused  criticism.  It  was  the 
persistent  exercise  of  jurisdiction  over  of- 
fenses "against  the  first  table  of  the  law" 
(i.e.,  against  the  first  four  commandments 
of  the  decalogue)  that  provoked  the  open 
hostility  of  Roger  Williams  against  the  au- 
thorities, and  caused  him  to  protest  that  the 
things  of  Grod  and  the  things  of  Csesar 
should  not  be  confounded,  a  protest  which 
brought  him  into  trouble." 

The  Puritans  had  hardly  reached  the 
dawn  of  the  glorious  day  which  was  to  be 
distinguished  by  absolute  religious  liberty. 
Roger  Williams  was  enveloped  in  its  full 
noonday  splendor.  Hon.  James  Bryce  de- 
nominates him  "an  orthodox  Puritan." 
True,  if  he  means  an  intense,  logically  con- 
sistent, fully  ripened,  radical  Puritan,  a  Pil- 
grim of  the  Pilgrims.  In  the  memorable 
words  of  Judge  Storey,  "In  the  code  of 
laws  established  by  Williams  and  his  com- 
panions we  read  for  the  first  time,  since 
Christianity    ascended   the   throne    of   the 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

Csesars,  the  declaration  that  the  conscience 
should  be  free,  and  that  men  should  not  be 
punished  for  worshiping  God  in  the  way 
they  were  persuaded  He  requires."  In 
similar  language  Professor  Masson  declares 
that  Roger  Williams  organized  "a  commu- 
nity on  the  unheard-of  principles  of  absolute 
religious  liberty  combined  with  perfect  civil 
democracy."  Such  is  the  unanimous  testi- 
mony of  historians  as  to  the  character  and 
service  of  the  founder  of  Rhode  Island. 
Mr.  Oscar  Straus  expresses  the  hope  "that 
the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  civilized 
people  in  the  remotest  corners  of  the  earth 
will  recognize  the  truth  and  power  of  the 
principles  which  throw  around  the  name  of 
Roger  Williams  a  halo  of  imperishable  glory 
and  fame."  May  this  new  and  popular  biog- 
raphy, charming  in  style,  appreciative  in 
spirit  and  in  harmony  with  the  generally 
accepted  facts  of  history,  hasten  the  realiza- 
tion of  this  sublime  hope. 

Henry  M.  King, 

Pastor  Emeritus  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
{The  Roger  Williams  Church). 

Providence,  R.  I. 


ROGER  WILLIAMS 


"ROGER  WILLIAMS  STEERED  HIS  LITTLE  SHIP 
OF  STATE  TO  A  SAFE  HARBOR  BY  THE  COMPASS 
OF  AN  ENLIGHTENED  CONSCIENCE."— SrflA  1/5. 


ROGER  WILLIAMS 

CHAPTER   I 

OUT  OF  THE  SHADOiVVS 

Tucked  away  in  the  northeastern  corner  of 
the  United  States  is  the  tiny  state  of  Rhode 
Island.  "Little  Rhody"  she  is  often  affec- 
tionately called,  although  her  full  name  is 
"State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence 
Plantations."  Such  an  overwhelming  title 
for  such  a  small  body!  *Yet  not  only  in 
length  of  name,  but  in  the  number  of  her 
capital  cities,  has  Rhode  Island  led  her 
sister  states.  Up  to  the  year  1900  she 
boasted  two  capitals,  while  every  other  state 
in  the  Union  was  contented  with  one.  From 
the  beginning,  Rhode  Island  has  made  up 
in  interesting  history  what  she  has  lacked  in 
size. ' 

Much  of  this  history  is  hinted  at  in  the 
names  found  within  her  borders.  Take  the 
name  Providence,  for  example.  It  sounds 
as  if  it  had  a  story  back  of  it — as,  indeed,  it 


4  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

has.  Other  quaint  and  suggestive  names 
are  found  in  the  streets  of  the  capital — 
Benefit,  Benevolent  and  Friendship — and 
in  the  islands  in  Narragansett  Bay — 
Prudence,  Patience,  Hope. 

Rhode  Island's  story  is  largely  that  of 
Roger  Williams,  yet  he  was  too  great  a  man 
to  belong  to  one  bit  of  the  country  alone. 
He  is  one  of  the  finest  characters  in  United 
States  history,  though  people  were  long  in 
finding  it  out.  Even  to-day  we  do  not 
always  remember  the  noble  services  he 
rendered  our  coimtry.  Men  who  do  spec- 
tacular things  have  many  biographers, 
while  quiet  lives  often  remain  unrecorded. 
We  are  apt  to  forget  that  it  may  take  as 
much  bravery  to  stand  abuse  and  loss  of 
friends  as  to  face  the  cannon's  mouth,  that 
even  more  courage  is  required  to  fight  for 
disagreeable  truths  than  to  win  battles.  So 
while  Roger  Williams  never  did  anything 
to  startle  the  world,  he  will  remain  one  of 
the  great  moral  soldiers  of  all  time.  Lack- 
ing appreciation  in  the  day  in  which  he 
lived,  he  deserves  the  honor  of  our  own  age. 
It  is  time  he  came  into  his  own. 


OUT  OF  THE  SHADOWS  5 

The  lives  of  most  famous  men  begin  with 
a  fixed  date.  Stories  of  family  and  boyhood 
follow,  with  perhaps  a  clear  description  of 
the  great  man  himself.  In  this  respect, 
Roger  WiUiams'  life  is  different  from  the 
others.  We  have  not  the  faintest  idea  what 
he  looked  like — ^whether  he  was  tall  or  short, 
stout  or  thin,  dark  or  light,  had  blue  eyes  or 
brown.  No  true  portrait  of  him  has  ever 
been  discovered.  The  artists  who  have 
attempted  to  give  us  his  likeness  in  bronze 
or  marble  or  on  canvas  have  had  to  idealize 
him. 

Out  of  a  shadowy  past,  largely  from  our 
own  imagination,  we  must  make  up  for  our- 
selves a  picture  of  his  early  days.  Roger 
Williams  has  left  a  very  scant  account  of 
his  boyhood  and  he  was  too  unpopular  in  the 
seventeenth  century  for  others  to  take  the 
trouble  to  record  it.  When  later  writers 
did  so,  they  made  many  mistakes.  This  is 
not  strange,  as  there  were  probably  several 
persons  by  the  name  of  Roger  Williams 
living  at  the  same  time  as  our  hero. 

To  begin  with,  the  very  date  of  Roger 
Wilhams'  birth  is  unknown.     It  is  given 


6  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

by  different  historians  anywhere  between 
1599  and  1607.  In  his  own  writings,  Roger 
Williams  referred  once  or  twice  to  his  age, 
but  in  such  an  indefinite  way  that  we  are 
led  to  think  that  he  was  not  exactly  sure 
of  his  birthday.  Thus  in  a  letter  written  to 
John  Winthrop  in  1632,  he  said  he  was 
"nearer  upwards  of  thirty  than  twenty- 
five."  Again,  in  1679,  he  said  he  was  "near 
to  fourscore  years  of  age."  Even  with  the 
most  careful  arithmetic,  we  shall  have  to  be 
content  with  the  rather  vague  information 
that  he  was  bom  near  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

As  to  his  birthplace,  on  this  point  also 
there  has  been  much  dispute.  For  many 
years  it  was  thought  to  be  Wales,  but  now 
it  has  been  quite  clearly  proved  that  Roger 
Williams  was  born  in  London.  The  ancient 
court  records  that  point  to  this  fact  show 
that  James  Williams  was  the  father  of 
Roger  and  a  merchant  tailor  living  in  the 
parish  of  "St.  Sepulchres,  without  New- 
gate, London."  He  was  apparently  in  com- 
fortable circumstances,  for  his  will  provided 
not  only   for  his  wife   and  children,   but 


OUT  OF  THE  SHADOWS  7 

directed  that  gifts  of  money  and  bread  be 
distributed  among  the  city  poor. 

Alice  Wilhams,  the  mother  of  Roger, 
who  survived  her  husband,  owned  or  leased 
property  in  Cow  Lane.  In  her  will  she 
mentioned  four  children — Sidrach,  the  old- 
est, Roger,  "now  beyond  the  seas,"  Kath- 
erine,  wife  of  John  Davies,  and  Robert.  To 
Roger  she  bequeathed  ten  pounds,  or  about 
fifty  dollars,  to  be  paid  yearly  for  a  term  of 
twenty  years. 

The  oldest  boy  of  the  family,  Sidrach, 
after  he  grew  up,  became  a  merchant  of 
Turkey  and  other  southern  countries  of 
Europe.  Roger  Williams  referred  to  him 
as  follows: 

"Myself  have  seen  the  Old  Testament  of 
the  Jews,  most  curious  writing,  whose  price 
(in  way  of  trade)  was  threescore  pound, 
which  my  brother,  a  Turkey  merchant,  had 
and  showed  me." 

Roger's  younger  brother  Robert  became, 
like  himself,  a  Rhode  Island  colonist.  He 
was  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Providence 
and  later  became  a  schoolmaster  at 
Newport. 


8  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

Like  many  another  boy,  Roger  Williams 
owed  his  start  in  life  to  a  great  man.  Sir 
Edward  Coke  was  a  brilliant  English  law- 
yer when  Roger  was  young.  His  friend- 
ship for  the  lad  is  best  described  by  Sir 
Edward's  daughter: 

"This  Roger  Williams,  when  he  was  a 
youth,  would,  in  a  short-hand,  take  sermons 
and  speeches  in  the  Star  Chamber,  and 
present  them  to  my  dear  father.  He,  see- 
ing so  hopeful  a  youth,  took  such  liking  to 
him  that  he  sent  him  in  to  Sutton's  Hos- 
pital, and  he  was  the  second  placed  there." 

The  Star  Chamber  was  a  London  Court, 
so  called  because  the  room  in  which  it  met 
had  a  ceiling  decorated  with  gilt  stars.  The 
school  mentioned  in  the  letter  is  better 
known  as  the  Charter  House  School.  On 
its  roll  of  students  are  such  famous  names 
as  Addison,  Steele,  John  Wesley  and 
Grote.  That  Roger  Williams  remembered 
his  early  friend  with  gratitude  is  shown  by 
these  words  written  in  middle  life : 

"And  I  may  truly  say,  that  beside  my 
natural  inclination  to  study  and  activity, 
his  example,  instruction  and  encouragement 


OUT  OF  THE  SHADOWS  9 

have  spurred  me  on  to  a  more  than  ordinary, 
industrious  and  patient  course  in  my  whole 
course  hitherto." 

There  is,  indeed,  every  reason  to  think 
that  Roger  WilUams  proved  to  be  the  kind 
of  pupil  Sir  Edward  hoped  he  would  be, 
for  while  at  the  Charter  House  he  success- 
fully prepared  himself  for  college.  Yet  of 
his  real  life  as  a  schoolboy — his  chums,  his 
sports,  his  pranks,  his  holidays — we  know 
almost  nothing.  One  tiny  bit  of  informa- 
tion has  come  down  to  us,  however,  which 
would  seem  to  show  that  Roger  Williams 
was  not  very  different  from  other  boys. 
Thackeray,  the  great  novelist,  who  was 
himself  a  scholar  at  the  Charter  House 
School  years  later,  once  said,  in  a  lecture 
in  Providence,  that  he  had  found  in  a  beam 
of  the  old  school  the  letters  "R  W"  which 
Roger  Williams  cut  there  as  a  boy.  When- 
ever Thackeray  had  to  educate  his  boy 
characters,  he  usually  sent  them  to  this  ven- 
erable old  institution.  This  is  the  way  he 
pictures  it  in  "The  Newcomes'' : 

"Under  the  great  archway  of  the  hospital 
he  could  look  at  the  old  Gothic  building; 


10  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

and  a  black-gowned  pensioner  or  two  crawl- 
ing over  the  quiet  square,  or  passing  from 
one  dark  arch  to  another.  The  boarding- 
houses  of  the  school  were  situated  in  the 
square,  hard  by  the  more  ancient  buildings 
of  the  hospital.  A  great  noise  of  shouting, 
crying,  clapping  forms  and  cupboards, 
treble  voices,  bass  voices,  poured  out  of  the 
schoolboys'  windows:  their  life,  bustle  and 
gaiety  contrasted  strangely  with  the  quiet 
of  those  old  men,  creeping  along  in  their 
black  gowns  under  the  ancient  arches  yon- 
der, whose  struggle  of  life  was  over,  whose 
hope  and  noise  and  bustle  had  sunk  into 
that  gray  calm." 

In  all  probability,  Roger  Williams  con- 
tinued his  education  at  Pembroke  College. 
Being  the  college  of  the  great  man  who  had 
interested  himself  in  the  boy,  it  was  the  one 
that  would  most  likely  be  chosen.  After 
graduating  with  a  degree,  Roger  Williams 
studied  law  for  a  time.  Then,  deciding  to 
become  a  minister,  he  took  orders  in  the 
Church  of  England  and  obtained  a  position 
as  chaplain  in  the  household  of  Sir  William 
Masham  of  Otes,  in  the  county  of  Essex. 


OUT  OF  THE  SHADOWS  U 

A  delightful  and,  at  the  same  time,  amus- 
ing love  story  has  come  to  light  which  re- 
veals one  of  the  last  glimpses  of  Roger 
Williams  in  the  Old  World.  It  seems  that 
the  wife  of  his  patron.  Lady  Masham,  had 
a  cousin,  Jane  Whalley,  with  whom  the 
young  chaplain  fell  in  love.  He  proceeded 
to  write  two  letters  to  Miss  Whalley's  aunt 
and  guardian.  Lady  Barrington,  asking  for 
the  hand  of  her  niece.  In  the  first,  he  men- 
tions the  fact  that  the  affair  has  caused  con- 
siderable talk  and  he  hints  that  Miss  Jane 
returns  his  affection.  Then  he  sums  up  his 
worldly  possessions — an  expected  trifling 
legacy  from  his  mother,  a  little  money 
("sevenscore  pieces")  and  a  small  library 
("a  little  yet  costly  study  of  books") .  Piti- 
ful means,  indeed,  for  winning  a  young  lady 
of  rank!  Yet  Roger  Williams  frankly 
pointed  out  to  the  aunt  that  the  advantages 
were  not  all  on  one  side,  for  in  spite  of  Miss 
Whalley's  high  birth,  she  had  a  most 
passionate  temper. 

Everything  considered,  it  is  not  strange 
that  the  struggling  minister  was  flatly  re- 
jected.     The   second    letter    addressed   to 


12  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

Lady  Barrington  is  such  as  only  a  disap- 
pointed, angry  lover  could  write.  He  says 
in  plain  language  that  the  Lord  is  very 
angry  with  her  ladyship  and  that  if  she  does 
not  repent,  all  sorts  of  dreadful  things  are 
likely  to  happen  to  her.  The  lengthy  ser- 
mon-letter is  filled  with  Scriptural  quota- 
tions. Still,  although  he  asserts,  "We  hope 
to  live  together  in  the  heavens  though  the 
Lord  have  denied  that  union  on  earth,"  time 
proved  a  rapid  healer.  In  less  than  two 
years  he  had  transferred  his  affection  to  a 
Miss  Mary  Warnard,  or  Barnard,  and  made 
her  his  wife. 

The  sequel  of  the  unfortunate  love  affair 
is  rather  interesting.  Of  course  Miss  Jane 
married  another  man,  but,  as  it  happened, 
he  was  a  clergyman  like  her  former  sweet- 
heart. In  turn  she  came  to  know  the 
pioneer  life  of  New  England  as  did  Roger 
Williams,  being  located  for  some  years  in 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  She  later 
returned  to  old  England,  where  her  husband 
became  chaplain  to  her  cousin,  Oliver  Crom- 
well, who  was  also  a  friend  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams.     In   fact,    Cromwell's    real    family 


OUT  OF  THE  SHADOWS  13 

name  was  Williams  and  some  historians 
have  even  asserted  that  he  was  related  to 
Roger  Williams. 

The  correspondence  with  Lady  Barring- 
ton  is  of  importance  aside  from  the  dis- 
appointing love  passages  it  records.  For 
here  is  given  an  early  inkling  of  that  unrest 
and  dissatisfaction  in  religious  matters  that 
was  to  play  so  large  a  part  in  the  future 
life  of  the  youthful  chaplain.  Already  be- 
ginning to  protest  against  the  established 
forms  of  worship,  he  writes,  "A  tender  con- 
science hath  kept  me  back  from  honor  and 
preferment.''  Then  follows  the  merest  hint 
of  having  received  a  call  from  New 
England. 

By  this  time  Roger  Williams  had  formed 
the  habit  of  thinking  for  himself  and  of 
holding  firmly  to  what  he  believed  to  be 
right,  whether  others  agreed  with  him  or 
not.  During  his  stay  in  Essex,  he  used  to 
talk  over  religious  subjects  with  his  fellow- 
clergymen  and  to  explain  why  he  differed 
from  them  on  certain  points.  Among  these 
companions  were  Thomas  Hooker  and  John 
Cotton,  whose  lives  ran  parallel  to  his  on 


14  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

both  sides  of  the  water.  The  three  friends 
rode  through  the  countryside  earnestly  dis- 
cussing the  burning  questions  uppermost  in 
their  minds.  Little  did  they  dream  where 
these  same  discussions  would  lead!  Had 
Master  Hooker  and  Master  Cotton  been 
told  that  the  argumentative  man  who  rode 
by  their  side  was  to  become  one  of  the 
makers  of  American  history  and  a  leader  in 
world  thought,  they  would  most  likely  have 
said,  "Oh,  no.  Roger  Williams  is  our 
friend,  but  he  is  really  a  very  short-sighted 
and  very  obstinate  fellow."  Indeed,  he  had 
gained  the  reputation  among  his  Sussex 
neighbors  of  being  "divinely  mad." 

These,  then,  are  the  few  meager  facts  of 
the  beginnings  of  Roger  Williams'  exist- 
ence before  he  set  his  face  toward  the  New 
World.  His  life  in  England  will  always 
remain  more  or  less  of  a  mystery.  Not  so, 
fortunately,  his  life  in  America.  His  hard- 
ships, trials,  adventures  and  sufferings  have 
become  familiar  history.  And  it  is  this  part 
of  the  story  that  is  most  important,  for 
Roger  Williams  is,  first  and  last,  a  great 
American. 


CHAPTER    II 

WESTWARD,  ho! 

In  order  to  understand  why  Roger  Wil- 
liams should  have  wanted  to  make  his  home 
on  this  side  of  the  water,  we  should  know 
a  little  something  of  the  England  in  which 
he  lived.  It  was  not  then  the  free,  liberal 
country  it  is  to-day.  In  many  matters,  es- 
pecially those  relating  to  religion,  a  man 
could  not  do  as  he  chose,  but  as  he  was  told. 
To-day,  one  can  attend  any  church  he 
pleases ;  then  he  was  forced  by  law  to  attend 
the  established  church.  The  king  was  the 
head  of  both  church  and  state. 

Now  it  was  not  surprising  that  all  persons 
of  that  day  did  not  care  to  support  the 
same  church.  They  were  not  able  to  think 
alike,  any  more  than  we  who  live  to-day. 
Curious,  indeed,  it  would  be  if  we  held  ex- 
actly the  same  views  as  our  neighbors  and 
v/orshiped  in  the  same  church.  Some  of 
the  men  of  Roger  Williams'  day  objected 


IG  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

to  the  teachings  of  the  national  church, 
others  wished  to  do  away  with  its  forms  and 
ceremonies.  And  because  they  could  not 
conscientiously  worship  the  way  the  sov- 
ereign commanded,  serious  trouble  arose. 
Those  who  were  independent  enough  to  defy 
the  king  were  liable  to  be  fined,  banished 
or  imprisoned.  And  the  prisons  of  those 
days  were  anything  but  pleasant  places  in 
which  to  spend  one's  time ! 

The  persons  who  objected  to  the  estab- 
lished form  of  worship  were  of  two  classes. 
On  the  one  hand  were  church  members  who 
believed  in  working  for  certain  religious 
reforms  without  separating  from  the  church. 
Their  enemies  nicknamed  them  Puritans, 
The  Puritans  argued  something  like  this: 

"We  do  not  think  our  ministers  should 
wear  vestments.  Neither  do  we  believe  it 
right  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  bap- 
tism. Kneeling  at  sacrament  is  sinful  in  our 
eyes,  also  the  use  of  the  organ  in  church. 
These  ceremonies  are  too  much  like  those 
of  the  Roman  church  from  which  we  have 
turned.  But  the  established  church  is  our 
church.     She  is  our  own  dear  mother  and 


WESTWARD,  HO!  17 

we  will  not  forsake  her.  At  the  same  time, 
while  still  remaining  her  children,  we  will 
try  to  lead  her  to  a  better,  purer  life." 

The  Separatists  went  further  than  this. 
In  turn,  they  argued: 

"The  church  is  corinipt  and  we  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  her.  We  will  form 
congregations  of  our  own  and  worship 
according  to  our  own  consciences." 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  being  a  Separatist 
was  a  far  more  dangerous  thing  than  being 
a  Puritan.  By  remaining  in  the  church,  the 
Puritan  was  shielded  to  an  extent.  The 
Separatist,  on  the  other  hand,  had  no 
protection. 

When  James,  the  first  Stuart  king,  came 
to  the  throne,  he  kept  in  mind  the  motto, 
"No  bishops,  no  king."  For  political  pur- 
poses, he  determined  on  a  course  of  perse- 
cution. He  said  of  all  those  who  would  not 
support  the  national  church,  "I  will  make 
them  conform,  or  I  will  harry  them  out  of 
the  land." 

That  is  just  what  he  did.  A  little  band 
of  Separatists,  who  were  later  to  become 
world-famous,  were  glad  to  flee  to  Holland 


18  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

to  escape  persecution.  It  was  no  small 
thing,  three  hundred  or  more  years  ago,  for 
any  European  country  to  shelter  a  people 
whose  religion  differed  from  that  of  the  state 
church  and  we  therefore  like  to  think  of  the 
liberality  of  the  Dutch.  The}^  and  the  Eng- 
lish immigrants  lived  together  like  brothers 
for  a  period  of  years.  A  thriving  settlement 
was  founded  at  Leyden,  and  here,  for  about 
twelve  years,  the  fugitives  knew  the  mean- 
ing of  peace  and  happiness.  Many  of  them 
learned  to  speak  and  write  the  Dutch  lan- 
guage, which  one  writer  has  called  "the 
sister  language  nearest  to  the  English." 
There  were  certainly  marriages  between  the 
two  peoples  and  the  English  children  were 
doubtless  sent  to  the  free  Dutch  schools  for 
their  education. 

As  Roger  Williams  was  familiar  with 
Dutch,  it  may  be  that  he  studied  the  lan- 
guage with  the  idea  of  making  Holland  his 
home.  However  that  may  be,  such  a  plan 
was  never  carried  out.  At  least  once  he  had 
occasion  to  address  King  James,  though 
what  the  occasion  was,  we  are  unable  to 
guess.    He  merely  referred  to  the  monarch 


WESTWARD,  HO!  19 

briefly  as  "King  James,  whom  I  have  spoke 
with." 

Why  did  the  Enghsh  in  Holland  begin 
to  long  for  still  another  home?  Living  so 
contentedly,  why  were  they  not  satisfied  to 
remain  so?  There  seem  to  have  been  two 
reasons  for  their  feeling  as  they  did.  To 
begin  with,  there  was  grave  danger  of  their 
becoming  a  part  of  the  Dutch  nation.  They 
were  afraid  of  losing  their  speech,  customs, 
religion — everything  that  made  them  Eng- 
hsh Separatists. 

Then,  too,  when  they  had  attempted  to 
spread  their  doctrines  by  means  of  printing. 
King  James  had  interfered  and  taken  pos- 
session of  the  types.  When  such  tyranny 
as  this  could  exist  even  in  kindly  Holland, 
they  thought  it  was  high  time  to  seek  a  home 
elsewhere. 

"  No  home  for  these!  —  too  well  they  knew 
The  mitered  king  behind  the  throne ; 
The  sails  were  set,  the  pennons  flew, 
And  westward,  ho!  for  worlds  unknown." 

The  rest  of  the  story  of  the  "Pilgrim 
Fathers"  we  all  know — how  they  crossed 


20  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

the  water,  battled  against  famine,  disease 
and  poverty,  and  succeeded  slowly  but 
surely  in  building  up  a  settlement  at 
Plymouth. 

Years  passed  before  they  had  any  neigh- 
bors. At  last,  in  1628,  the  little  settlement 
of  Salem  was  formed  by  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  Company.  This  was  followed  two 
years  later  by  a  big  migration  of  Puritans 
to  New  England  mider  John  Winthrop 
which  led  to  the  founding  of  Boston  and 
several  smaller  towns.  The  colony  which 
embraced  these  different  settlements  was 
called  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony. 

Meanwhile,  things  had  been  going  from 
bad  to  worse  in  England.  King  Charles 
was  now  on  the  throne  and  his  subjects  were 
discouraged  to  find  that  he  was  even  more 
of  a  tyrannical  master  than  James,  his 
father.  How  could  anybody  expect  justice 
or  fairness  from  a  ruler  who  believed  that 
because  he  was  a  king,  he  could  do  no 
wrong?  It  grew  more  and  more  uncom- 
fortable for  the  Puritans  every  day,  even 
in  the  established  church.  One  of  Charles' 
chief  adviserSj  Archbishop  Laud,  was  busy 


WESTWARD,  HO!  21 

ridding  the  country  of  all  "heretics"  and 
other  offenders  against  the  royal  will  and 
law.  If  Roger  Wilhams  had  now  taken 
notes  in  the  Star  Chamber  as  he  did  when 
a  boy,  he  would  have  recorded  many  unde- 
served punishments,  such  as  heavy  fines, 
whippings  and  worse.  But  he  was  now  a 
man  and  looking  with  longing  eyes  across 
the  ocean,  as  so  many  of  his  countrymen 
had  before  him. 

As  to  Roger  Williams'  true  place  among 
the  different  sects  of  his  time,  he  was  with- 
out doubt  a  Separatist.  More  than  one 
passage  in  his  letters  points  to  this  as  the 
truth.  There  was  no  half-way  to  a  man  of 
his  decided  character.  Believing  as  he  did, 
there  was  only  one  thing  for  him  to  do — 
seek  a  refuge  in  the  New  World. 

"And  truly  it  was  as  bitter  as  death  to 
me,"  he  wrote  in  after  years,  "when  Bishop 
Laud  pursued  me  out  of  this  land,  and 
my  conscience  was  persuaded  against  the 
national  church,  and  ceremonies,  and 
bishops." 

By  the  last  of  the  year  1630,  our  pioneer 
'V^as  readv  to  sail  for  America  and  on  D^r 


22  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

cember  1st,  he  took  passage  in  the  ship 
Lyon,  commanded  by  Captain  Pierce,  at 
Bristol.  With  him  was  his  young  wife 
Mary.  Very  little  is  known  about  her  early 
history — far  less  than  what  has  been  dis- 
covered about  the  fair  Jane  whom  Roger 
Williams  failed  to  win.  That  she  made  a 
good  wife  and  mother  and  shared  her  hus- 
band's troublous  career  with  lovmg  devotion 
is  quite  certain. 

For  over  two  months,  in  the  dead  of 
winter,  the  vessel  battled  with  gales  and 
storms  and  ice.  One  passenger,  a  young 
man,  lost  his  life  and  at  times  probably 
eveiybody  aboard  felt  sure  they  would 
never  see  land  again.  It  must  have  been 
with  deep  relief  and  thanksgiving  that  the 
weary  passengers  finally  landed  safely  at 
Nantasket,  near  Boston,  February  5,  1631. 

In  this  stormy  fashion,  Roger  Williams' 
new  life  began. 


CHAPTER   III 

NEW  NEIGHBORS 

We  have  seen  that  by  the  time  Roger  Wil- 
liams had  made  up  his  mind  to  emigrate  to 
America,  the  most  important  colonies  in 
New  England  were  Plymouth  and  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  Colony.  Plymouth  was 
Separatist  and  the  Bay  Colony  Puritan,  but 
every  day  growing  farther  and  farther  from 
the  English  Church.  We  would  expect 
Roger  Williams  to  decide  upon  the  Plym- 
outh settlement  as  a  home,  as  its  people 
held  similar  views  to  his  own  and  it  was  the 
more  liberal  colony  of  the  two.  Why,  in- 
stead, he  chose  to  live  in  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colony  cannot  be  easily  explained. 
Possibly  in  far-away  England  he  did  not 
rightly  understand  just  how  matters  stood 
in  New  England. 

However,  there  was  great  rejoicing 
when  the  young  minister  and  his  wife  first 
appeared  in  Boston.    The  talented  stranger 


24  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

was  hailed  as  a  "godly  minister"  and  a  wel- 
come addition  to  the  little  colony.  Far 
different  language  was  used  a  few  years 
later  when  he  was  turned  out  of  that  same 
colony,  a  homeless  fugitive,  disgraced  and 
forbidden  ever  to  return!  The  friendship 
between  Roger  Williams  and  the  Bay  au- 
thorities lasted  only  until  each  had  an 
opportunity  to  get  better  acquainted  with 
the  other. 

At  first,  the  future  loomed  bright  and 
promising  to  Roger  Williams.  Hundreds 
of  miles  behind  him  were  tyrannical  king, 
heartless  bishop,  and  all  that  had  made  life 
on  English  soil  a  burden.  Ahead  were  long 
years  of  peace,  freedom  and  usefulness 
among  new  neighbors  who  were  his  own 
people. 

How  different  was  to  be  the  future  from 
what  he  imagined !  He  had  yet  to  learn  that 
here,  in  the  wilds  of  New  England,  was  a 
tyranny,  in  some  respects  as  narrow  as  that 
of  King  Charles.  Here,  too,  was  unjust 
persecution  very  much  like  that  from  which 
he  had  fled.  The  Massachusetts  Puritans 
who  had  left  the  mother  country  because 


NEW  NEIGHBORS  25 

they  could  not  worship  according  to  their 
consciences  now  refused  to  let  others  wor- 
ship according  to  their  consciences.  They 
who  had  been  made  to  suffer  for  thinking 
as  they  pleased  now  caused  their  neighbors 
to  suffer  for  the  same  reason.  They  held 
that  while  they  had  objected  to  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  established  church,  now  that  a 
purer  form  of  worship  had  taken  its  place, 
it  must  and  should  be  supported.  They 
had  bitterly  criticized  the  English  Church, 
but  nobody  must  criticize  theirs! 

The  accepted  law  was  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments. These  were  divided  into  "two 
tables."  The  first  four,  or  those  which 
summed  up  man's  duty  to  God,  were  the 
"first  table,"  while  the  remaining  six,  which 
covered  the  duties  of  man  to  man,  were  the 
"second  table."  A  person  guilty  of  break- 
ing any  one  of  the  Commandments  was 
liable  to  be  punished  by  the  magistrates. 
The  government  of  the  colony  was  based 
upon  the  old  Mosaic  Law.  Severe  and 
heartless  were  the  penalties  meted  out  to 
offenders — often  more  severe  and  more 
heartless  than  those  of  England.    Naturally 


26  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

the  world  had  progressed  during  the  hun- 
dreds of  years  that  had  elapsed  since  the 
rigid  code  of  the  Hebrew  law-giver  was  in 
force. 

Into  this  narrow  body  of  believers  came 
Roger  Williams,  who  was  to  become  the 
"apostle  of  soul  liberty."  From  the  very 
start,  he  was  looked  upon  as  a  trouble- 
maker. A  Boston  clergyman.  Cotton 
JNIather,  writing  about  this  period  some 
years  later,  said  that  Roger  Williams  had 
a  windmill  in  his  head. 

"In  the  year  1654,  a  certain  windmill  in 
the  Low  Countries,  whirling  round  with 
extraordinary  violence,  by  reason  of  a  vio- 
lent storm  then  blowing,  the  stone  at  length 
by  its  rapid  motion  became  so  intensely  hot 
as  to  fire  the  mill,  from  whence  the  flames, 
being  dispersed  by  the  high  winds,  did  set 
a  whole  town  on  fire.  But  I  can  tell  my 
reader  that,  about  twenty  years  before  this, 
there  was  a  whole  country  in  America  like 
to  be  set  on  fire  by  the  rapid  motion  of  a 
windmill,  in  the  head  of  one  particular 
man." 

Immediately  upon  his  arrival,  the  earnest 


NEW  NEIGHBORS  27 

young  minister  was  given  a  chance  to  preach 
in  a  Boston  church,  but  he  refused  for  two 
reasons.  First,  the  church  members  were  an 
"unseparated  people"  and  would  not  con- 
fess they  were  sorry  for  having  had  com- 
munion with  English  churches.  Now  it 
would  seem  that,  on  this  first  point,  Roger 
Williams  was  quite  as  narrow  as  his  neigh- 
bors. Yet  he  was  at  least  consistent.  Here 
were  his  fellow-fugitives  who  had  suffered 
abuse  and  persecution  for  protesting  against 
the  "corruptions"  of  the  established  church. 
For  the  sake  of  their  convictions  they  had 
given  up  home  and  friends  in  the  Old 
World  to  face  the  trials  and  hardships 
of  the  New.  Yet  they  still  persisted  in 
clinging  fondly  to  the  old  church. 

What  Roger  Williams  practically  said  to 
them  was : 

"You  have  left  the  old  life  behind  and 
have  started  in  on  the  new.  You  have  been 
given  a  chance  to  found  a  church  after  your 
own  heart.  Why,  then,  are  you  not  a 
separated  people?  I  cannot  preach  to  you, 
for  I  have  broken  away  forever  from  the 
church  that  has  persecuted  me." 


28  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

Roger  Williams'  second  objection  to 
preaching  in  the  Boston  pulpit  was  that  the 
magistrates  were  allowed  to  punish  sins  of 
the  "first  table."  This  foreshadowed  the 
principle  of  soul  liberty,  which  denied  the 
right  of  civil  power  to  interfere  in  spiritual 
matters. 

The  whole  trouble  arose  from  the  Puri- 
tans confusing  church  and  state.  They 
could  not  comprehend  that  the  two  should 
be  separate,  independesnt  bodies.  In  the 
spring  of  1631,  they  passed  a  law  providing 
that  only  church  members  should  have  the 
privilege  of  citizenship.  They  believed 
that  the  magistrates  had  just  as  much  right 
to  punish  for  spiritual  offences  as  for  civil 
offences,  or  those  which  disturbed  the  well- 
being  of  the  community.  When  Roger 
Williams  had  carried  his  views  on  the  sub- 
ject to  a  logical  conclusion  years  later,  he 
made  them  clear  in  the  form  of  a  parable. 

He  said  that  the  State  was  like  an  im- 
mense ship  carrying  all  kinds  of  passengers. 
Among  them  are  Catholics,  Protestants, 
Jews  and  Turks.  Their  different  religions 
are,  of  course,  very  unlike  and  the  captain 


NEW  NEIGHBORS  29 

should  be  sensible  enough  to  understand 
this  and  let  each  one  worship  as  he  pleases, 
according  to  his  own  peculiar  custom.  This 
is  only  fair,  as  long  as  the  passengers  remain 
peaceful  and  orderly.  If,  however,  any  one 
of  them  refuses  to  pay  for  his  passage  or 
disturbs  the  peace,  then  and  then  only  has 
the  captain  a  right  to  step  in  and  punish 
the  offender.  But  he  does  not  interfere  be- 
cause the  culprit  is  a  Jew  or  a  Catholic  or 
a  Protestant,  but  because  he  has  not  re- 
spected the  rights  of  others.  In  the  same 
way,  the  State  has  a  right  to  see  that  its 
citizens  are  well-behaved,  but  should  leave 
their  religion  alone. 

From  the  very  beginning,  then,  there  was 
trouble  for  Roger  Williams.  Not  many 
months  passed  before  he  received  an  ap- 
pointment as  assistant  to  the  Reverend 
Samuel  Skelton  of  Salem.  The  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  did  not  like  the 
choice  of  the  Salem  people  and  wrote  a 
letter  to  that  effect.  Nevertheless,  the  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  the  outspoken  minister 
was  such  that  he  was  allowed  to  take  his 
charge  without  difficulty. 


30  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

At  this  settlement,  matters  progressed 
more  smoothly.  Roger  Williams'  congre- 
gation was  well  pleased  with  him  and 
showed  their  affection  for  him  after  he 
ceased  being  their  minister,  as  we  shall  see. 
He  was  not  permitted,  however,  to  remain 
here  more  than  a  few  months,  for  the  au- 
thorities could  not  leave  any  man  alone  who 
was  believed  to  be  such  a  mischief-maker. 
By  the  close  of  summer,  he  was  obliged  to 
move  to  Plymouth. 

For  two  years  he  led  a  fairly  peaceful  life 
in  his  new  home,  but  it  was  not  an  easy 
existence.  "At  Plymouth,"  he  wrote,  "I 
spake  on  the  Lord's  days  and  week  days 
and  wrought  hard  at  the  hoe  for  my  bread." 

During  his  ministry.  Governor  Winthrop 
of  Massachusetts,  in  company  with  others, 
went  to  Plymouth  for  a  little  visit,  going 
afoot  the  latter  part  of  the  journey.  They 
were  met  outside  the  town,  escorted  to  the 
governor's  house,  and  royally  entertained 
at  different  homes  in  the  days  that  followed. 
On  Sunday,  they  attended  church,  of  course. 
Roger  Williams  was  the  preacher,  although 
the  Plymouth  governor,  elders  and  guests 


NEW  NEIGHBORS  3l 

also  took  part  in  the  service.  The  peaceful 
Sabbath  afternoon  stands  out  in  strange 
contrast  to  the  stormy  scenes  that  came 
after. 

During  this  period,  a  little  daughter  was 
bom,  to  whom  was  given  the  name  of  her 
mother,  Mary. 

While  Roger  Williams  was  not  perse- 
cuted at  Plymouth,  he  was  very  ready  to 
return  to  Salem  and  the  good  friends  he  had 
left  there  when  the  opportunity  came.  Re- 
ceiving a  second  call  from  the  Salem  church, 
probably  in  the  summer  of  1633,  he  gave 
up  his  ministry  in  Plymouth  and  made 
preparations  to  go  back  to  his  old  parish. 
Some  of  his  congregation  were  loath  to  have 
him  go — in  fact,  so  closely  had  he  endeared 
them  to  him  that  several  followed  him  to 
Salem. 

Before  taking  up  Roger  Williams'  his- 
tory in  that  town,  let  us  pause  for  a  moment 
to  see  who  some  of  the  men  were  who  had 
already  come  in  contact  with  the  vigorous 
preacher  or  who  were  to  shape  his  future 
course.  Such  a  grim  portrait  gallery  of 
unflinching   old    Puritans    they   represent! 


32  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

As  we  look  at  some  of  the  stern,  forbidding 
faces,  we  cannot  help  being  grateful  that 
we  are  living  in  the  twentieth  century 
instead  of  the  age  of  Roger  Williams. 

Occupying  a  central  place  on  the  dark 
canvas  is  a  Puritan  of  the  Puritans — intel- 
lectual, proud,  superior.  There  is  no  mis- 
taking him — John  Cotton,  of  whom  we  have 
had  a  glimpse  before.  His  mouth  seems 
about  to  open,  so  eager  is  he  for  a  learned 
argument.  He  is  the  exact  opposite  of 
Roger  Williams  and  the  two  men  are  to  be 
pitted  against  each  other  all  their  lives. 
The  title  of  "unmitered  pope  of  New  Eng- 
land" will  be  given  him  by  future  genera- 
tions. Like  his  opponent,  he  follows  what 
he  believes  to  be  the  path  of  right,  but) 
whereas  with  Roger  Williams  it  leads  to 
liberty,  with  John  Cotton  it  leads  to  perse- 
cution. We  pass  to  the  next  portrait  with 
a  sigh  of  relief. 

Thomas  Hooker,  also  the  friend  of  early 
days,  comes  next.  Milder,  less  learned, 
perhaps,  than  John  Cotton,  he  still  has  a 
reputation  for  able  argument.     He  is  to 


NEW  NEIGHBORS  33 

labor  long  and  earnestly  to  make  the 
mischief-maker  see  the  error  of  his  ways. 

Governor  Bradford  of  Mayflower  fame, 
dignified  and  scholarly,  comes  next  in  order. 
There  is  nothing  of  the  tyrant  in  his 
make-up.  While  believing  Roger  Williams 
"unsettled  in  judgment,"  he  is  just  enough 
to  say  that  he  is  "a  man  godly  and  zealous, 
having  many  precious  parts."  Though  he 
does  not  entirely  approve  of  him,  he  is 
"thankful  to  him,  even  for  his  sharpest 
admonitions  and  reproofs  so  far  as  they 
agree  with  truth." 

We  linger  long  upon  the  next  portrait — 
a  kindly  face,  that  of  a  good  friend.  It  is 
another  governor  of  Plymouth,  Edward 
Winslow.  Fortunate,  indeed,  is  Roger 
Williams  to  have  this  "great  and  pious  soul" 
interested  in  him.  Dark  days  are  ahead  and 
his  friendship — not  to  mention  a  welcome 
piece  of  gold  for  needed  family  provisions 
— will  not  come  amiss. 

We  hardly  believe  that  Elder  Brewster, 
the  next  in  line,  could  bring  himself  to  do 
so  gracious  a  deed.  His  conscience  is  too 
sensitive.     Thankful  enough  is  he  that  the 


34  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

call  to  the  Salem  church  will  prevent  the 
further  spreading  of  "dangerous"  doctrine 
in  Plymouth.  It  is  the  part  of  prudence 
to  bid  Roger  Williams  Godspeed. 

Who  is  that  eager,  restless  person  who 
occupies  the  next  place — ^whose  flashing 
eyes  and  open  face  tell  as  plainly  as  words 
that  he  is  the  creature  of  impulse?  He  is 
always  doing  hasty  things,  being  sorry  for 
them,  and  then  doing  the  next  hasty  thing 
that  presents  itself!  Big-hearted,  reckless, 
courageous,  narrow  John  EndicottI  It  is 
no  wonder  he  is  often  in  disgrace.  Let  us 
not  forget  that  more  than  once  he  champions 
the  cause  of  Roger  Williams. 

The  finest  Puritan  of  them  all  comes  last, 
Governor  John  Winthrop  of  the  Bay 
Colony.  A  splendid,  noble  face  is  his.  He 
is  every  inch  a  gentleman.  He  has  brought 
the  best  of  old  England  into  the  crude  life 
of  New  England  and  is  helping  to  build  up 
so  sturdy  a  race  that  the  generations  which 
follow  will  be  proud  of  their  descent  from 
him  and  Puritans  like  him.  He  does  not 
agree  with  Roger  Williams,  but  a  life-long 
friendship    springs    up    between    the    two. 


NEW  NEIGHBORS  35 

"Mr.  John  Winthrop,"  said  the  younger 
man,  "tenderly  loved  me  to  his  last  breath." 
Many  of  the  quaint,  old-fashioned  letters 
addressed  to  the  Bay  governor  have  come 
down  to  us.  "I  sometimes  fear,"  says  the 
writer,  "that  my  lines  are  as  thick  and  over- 
busy  as  the  mosquitoes."  He  discusses  re- 
ligious questions,  talks  over  Indian  troubles 
and  asks  Winthrop's  advice,  because,  says 
he,  "of  the  frequent  experience  of  your 
loving  ear,  ready  and  open  toward  me." 

These,  then,  were  a  few  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams' neighbors.  There  were  still  other 
neighbors,  who  were  friends  as  well.  These 
were  the  New  England  Indians.  From  the 
very  beginning  of  his  new  life  in  America, 
Roger  Williams  had  taken  a  deep  interest 
in  them.  For  one  thing,  he  held  that  as  they 
were  the  first-comers,  the  land  belonged  to 
them  and  could  not  be  rightly  owned  by 
others,  except  by  purchase.  It  is  true  that 
most  of  the  colonists  did  pay  for  the  terri- 
tory they  occupied  whatever  the  natives 
thought  it  was  worth,  yet  as  soon  as  Roger 
Williams  gave  his  opinion  on  the  subject, 
he  was  accused  of  disloyalty.     It  was  one 


36  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

thing  to  bargain  with  the  savages,  quite  an- 
other to  announce  boldly  that  James,  who 
granted  the  first  New  England  charter,  was 
not  "sovereign  lord"  of  the  whole  continent, 
and  that  those  who  claimed  land  merely  by 
royal  grant  had  no  title  to  it  whatever. 

In  spite  of  opposition,  Roger  Williams 
had  the  courage  of  his  convictions.  He 
wrote  a  treatise  on  the  subject  which  he  sent 
to  the  governor  and  council  of  Plymouth. 

No  portion  of  Roger  Williams'  life  is 
more  interesting  than  that  which  deals  with 
the  red  men.  The  Wampanoags  or  Pokano- 
kets,  whose  chief  was  Massasoit,  occupied 
the  Plymouth  territory,  while  to  the  west 
were  the  powerful  Narragansetts,  whose 
sachems  were  Canonicus  and  Miantonomo. 
To  gain  the  friendship  of  the  Indians, 
Roger  Williams  endured  all  kinds  of  hard 
and  unpleasant  experiences,  for  his  "soul's 
desire  was  to  do  the  natives  good."  He  vis- 
ited them,  he  encouraged  their  visiting  him, 
he  patiently  studied  their  language.  To 
quote  his  own  words:  "God  was  pleased  to 
give  me  a  painful,  patient  spirit  to  lodge 
with  them  in  their  filthy,  smoky  holes  (even 


NEW  NEIGHBORS  37 

while  I  lived  at  Plymouth  and  Salem)  to 
gain  their  tongue." 

It  was  a  fortunate  thing  for  the  colonists 
that  Roger  Williams  took  this  trouble. 
Otherwise  he  would  not  have  been  able  to 
act  as  interpreter  and  peacemaker  in  after 
years,  when  Indian  uprisings  threatened  the 
settlements.  It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to 
say  that  no  one  man  prevented  more  blood- 
shed in  early  New  England  than  Roger 
Williams. 

The  Indians,  often  suspicious  and  un- 
trustworthy where  other  men  were  con- 
cerned, always  showed  a  child-like  con- 
fidence in  their  best  friend.  This  was  not 
because  he  "took  sides"  with  them.  Often 
he  told  them  they  were  in  the  wrong  and 
urged  them  to  do  the  right  thing  by  their 
white  neighbors.  It  was  the  absolute  justice 
and  sincerity  of  Roger  Williams  that  won 
their  admiration.  He  could  tell  no  lie.  Of 
that  they  felt  sure,  so  they  accepted  what  he 
told  them  without  argument  or  denial. 


CHAPTER   IV 


THE  WAR  OF  WORDS 


Very  little  is  known  about  Roger  Williams' 
home  in  Salem,  beyond  the  fact  that  it  was 
the  former  residence  of  Francis  Higginson, 
a  teacher  of  the  Salem  church.  At  his 
death,  the  house  passed  to  Mrs.  Higginson, 
but  after  occupying  it  but  for  a  short  time, 
she  allowed  her  husband's  successor  to  take 
possession  of  it.  Roger  Williams  probably 
bought  it  outright,  for  later  he  spoke  of 
mortgaging  it  to  raise  needed  funds.  If  it 
was  like  the  usual  Colonial  dwelling  of  that 
day,  it  was  plain  and  rather  bare,  but  com- 
fortable and  roomy  to  a  degree,  after  the 
early  New  England  standard.  A  gabled 
roof,  generous  open  fireplaces,  and  windows 
made  up  of  many  tiny  panes  of  glass  were 
its  most  conspicuous  features. 

As  to  the  church  in  which  Roger  Wil- 
liams preached,  even  less  information  has 
been  gleaned  than  that  relating  to  his  home. 


THE  WAR  OF  WORDS  39 

For  many  years  a  tradition  has  persisted 
that  it  was  a  diminutive,  raftered  structure 
with  steep-pitched  roof  and  clay  floor — the 
whole  thing  more  nearly  resembling  a  back- 
woods cabin  than  a  place  of  worship.  There 
is  little  reason  to  think  that  the  Salem  con- 
gregations— with  whom  church-going  was 
a  sacred  duty — could  have  been  housed  in 
such  a  rude  chapel,  which  was  no  larger 
than  a  good-sized  room.  Yet  while  the 
First  Church  was  an  improvement  on  this, 
it  must  have  presented  a  striking  contrast 
to  the  beautiful  Old  World  cathedral 
churches,  with  which  some  of  the  parish- 
ioners were  familiar. 

Back  in  Salem,  Roger  Williams  soon 
found  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  war  of  words 
far  more  serious  than  any  that  had  gone 
before.  He  was  first  called  to  account  by 
the  governor  and  his  assistants  for  the 
pamphlet  he  had  written  in  Plymouth  de- 
claring that  the  right  of  the  Indians  to  the 
territory  they  occupied,'  was  greater  than 
that  of  the  King.  Upon  being  censured  for 
his  opinions,  Roger  Williams  was,  for  once, 
very  humble.    He  said  he  had  no  intention 


40  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

of  causing  trouble  and  even  went  so  far  as 
to  offer  to  burn  a  portion,  or  even  the  whole, 
of  the  book  if  the  authorities  so  desired. 
The  charge  was  dropped  for  the  time  being. 
His  accusers  "found  the  matters  not  to  be 
so  evil  as  at  first  they  seemed."  Yet  scarcely 
a  year  had  passed  before  he  was  summoned 
to  appear  before  the  court  for  persisting  "in 
teaching  publicly  against  the  King's  patent, 
and  our  great  sin  in  claiming  right  thereby 
to  this  country." 

They  were  not  always  big  questions  that 
occupied  the  attention  of  New  England 
congregations  at  this  time.  Roger  Wil- 
liams was  guilty,  with  the  others,  of  enter- 
ing into  lengthy  discussions  about  what 
would  seem  to  us  to-day  very  unimportant 
trifles.  He  was  no  perfect  hero,  but  had  his 
faults  and  weaknesses,  like  the  best  of  men. 
Some  writers  are  of  the  opinion  that  he 
often  argued  merely  for  the  sake  of  differ- 
ing from  others.  We  should  be  charitable 
to  both  him  and  his  rigid  neighbors,  remem- 
bering the  narrow  age  in  which  they  lived. 

Think  of  the  absurdity  of  a  whole  com- 
munity getting  wildly  excited  over  the  ques- 


THE  WAR  OF  WORDS  41 

tion  of  women  wearing  veils  in  churches  and 
other  public  places!  Roger  Williams  at- 
tempted to  show  that  no  modest  woman 
would  appear  with  face  uncovered.  John 
Cotton,  in  an  earnest  sermon,  taught  just 
the  opposite.  John  Endicott  of  course 
had  a  voice  in  the  dispute — there  were  those 
who  said  he  was  the  one  who  started  it — and 
quoted  much  Scripture  to  show  he  was  in 
the  right.  Finally,  the  governor  himself 
had  to  step  in  and  quiet  them  all.  What  a 
puzzling  existence  it  must  have  been  for  the 
poor  women  of  Salem!  When  their  bril- 
liant, learned  ministers  flatly  contradicted 
one  another,  yet  all  took  the  Bible  for 
authority,  what  course  was  open  for  a  mere 
woman  of  ordinary  intelligence? 

The  veil  controversy  was,  without  ques- 
tion, unimportant  and  even  silly.  Another 
matter  now  came  up,  which  was  somewhat 
more  serious.  John  Endicott  got  into 
trouble  because  he  cut  the  red  cross  of  St. 
George  out  of  the  military  colors.  To  him 
it  was  an  anti-Christian  sign  that  ought  not 
to  be  retained  by  people  who  had  broken 
away  from  symbols  and  ceremonies.     The 


42  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

General  Couii:  punished  him  by  depriving 
him  of  public  office  for  a  year.  What  had 
Roger  Williams  to  do  with  it  all?  Abso- 
lutely nothing,  as  far  as  can  be  found  out. 
Yet  the  blame  has  long  rested  on  his 
shoulders,  because,  it  was  claimed,  if  he  had 
not  preached  the  doctrines  he  did,  John 
Endicott  would  never  have  thought  of  such 
a  thing! 

Roger  Williams  was  not  regularly  or- 
dained until  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Skelton. 
Then,  in  defiance  of  the  magistrates,  who 
were  greatly  displeased,  the  Salem  church 
welcomed  him  as  pastor.  The  people  to 
whom  he  ministered  had  something  of  his 
own  courageous  spirit  in  holding  out  for  the 
appointment. 

The  Indian  question  was  not  the  only  one 
for  which  the  General  Court  rebuked  Roger 
Williams.  On  one  charge  or  another,  he 
was  repeatedly  in  disgrace.  One  of  his 
offences  was  the  stand  he  took  in  regard  to 
oaths.  He  held  "that  a  magistrate  ought 
not  to  tender  an  oath  to  an  unregenerate 
man."  To  us,  this  taking  of  an  oath  seems 
a  simple  enough  duty  and  one  to  which  there 


THE  WAR  OF  WORDS  43 

could  be  no  objection.  With  Roger  Wil- 
liams, however,  it  meant  an  act  of  worship 
and,  as  such,  should  not  be  forced  upon  any- 
body, least  of  all  upon  one  to  whom  it  had 
no  real  meaning.  Believing  as  he  did  that 
the  Lord's  name  should  never  be  taken  in 
vain,  was  it  not  wrong  to  require  a  man  who 
did  not  fear  God  to  take  such  phrases  on  his 
lips  as,  "I  therefore  do  swear  by  the  great 
and  dreadful  name  of  the  ever  living  God," 
and  "So  help  me,  God  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ"?  To  him  this  was  nothing  less  than 
profanity. 

The  solemn  words  quoted  above  are  to  be 
found  in  what  was  known  as  the  Freeman's 
Oath,  which  was  a  pledge  of  loyalty  and 
support  to  the  government.  The  person 
taking  the  oath  agreed  to  submit  to  the 
"wholesome  laws"  established  by  that  gov- 
ernment. Now  Roger  Williams  had  found 
some  of  these  laws  anything  but  wholesome. 
Then,  too,  the  Freeman's  Oath  seemed  to 
transfer  allegiance  from  the  King  to  the 
government  of  Massachusetts  and  was, 
therefore,  contrary  to  the  charter.  Thus 
there  were  reasons  why  Roger  Williams  ob- 


44  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

jected  to  oath-taking  in  general  and  may 
have  objected  to  this  oath  in  particular. 

Heading  the  list  of  "divers  dangerous 
opinions"  brought  against  the  once  "godly 
minister"  by  the  General  Court  in  July, 
1635,  was  this: 

"That  the  magistrates  ought  not  to  pun- 
ish the  breach  of  the  first  table,  otherwise 
than  in  such  cases  as  did  disturb  the  civil 
peace." 

The  words  have  a  familiar  sound.  Denial 
of  the  civil  power  to  exert  authority  over  a 
man's  conscience — the  true  Roger  Williams 
principle!  It  was  this,  as  we  have  seen, 
which  caused  a  breach  with  the  authorities 
almost  as  soon  as  the  troublesome  preacher 
landed  in  New  England.  At  this  court, 
he  was  plainly  told  that  at  the  next  court 
he  must  either  "give  satisfaction  or  else 
expect  the  sentence." 

So  things  went  from  bad  to  worse.  Roger 
Williams  became  ill.  He  had  traveled  back 
and  forth,  from  Salem  to  Boston,  from  Bos- 
ton to  Salem,  with  weary  limbs  but  daunt- 
less courage,  to  argue  questions  that  he 
honestly  believed  were  matters  of  conscience 


THE  WAR  OF  WORDS  45 

and  not  of  state.  At  first  his  church  loyally 
supported  him.  In  return,  the  magistrates 
treated  the  church  like  a  naughty  child  who 
has  done  wrong  and  must  be  deprived  of 
something  it  longs  for  until  it  makes  up  its 
mind  to  be  good  again.  In  this  case,  the 
withheld  treasure  was  some  land  in  Marble- 
head  Neck  to  which  the  church  laid  claim. 
Both  minister  and  congregation  wrote  sharp 
letters  to  the  Bay  churches,  protesting 
against  the  persecution  of  their  magistrate 
members.  Alas,  the  churches  were  not  big 
enough  morally  to  range  themselves  against 
the  authorities  and  their  injustice! 

Feeble,  discouraged,  with  a  sense  of  in- 
jury rankling  within,  Roger  Williams  with- 
drew from  them  and  refused  to  have  any- 
thing more  to  do  with  his  own  church  unless 
it  did  the  same.  It  was  an  extreme  measure, 
but  there  was  great  provocation.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  Salem  church  lost  its  brief 
bravery  and  decided  to  "be  good."  Its 
minister  was  left  to  fight  his  battle  single- 
handed. 

A  crisis  rapidly  approached.  Of  course 
Roger  Williams  refused  to  change  his  views. 


46  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

He  could  not  conscientiously  do  so,  and  he 
was  not  the  coward  to  proclaim  one  thing 
while  believing  another.  In  the  autumn, 
therefore,  the  following  sentence  of  banish- 
ment was  passed,  after  Thomas  Hooker  had 
vainly  tried  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  culprit : 

"Whereas  Mr.  Roger  Williams,  one  of 
the  elders  of  the  church  of  Salem,  hath 
broached  and  divulged  divers  new  and  dan- 
gerous opinions,  against  the  authority  of 
magistrates,  as  also  writ  letters  of  defama- 
tion, both  of  the  magistrates  and  churches 
here,  and  that  before  any  conviction,  and 
yet  maintaineth  the  same  without  retraction, 
it  is  therefore  ordered,  that  the  said  Mr. 
Williams  shall  depart  out  of  this  jurisdic- 
tion within  six  weeks  now  next  ensuing, 
which  if  he  neglect  to  perform,  it  shall  be 
lawful  for  the  governor  and  two  of  the  mag- 
istrates to  send  him  to  some  place  out  of 
this  jurisdiction,  not  to  return  any  more 
without  license  from  the  court." 

Only  one  voice  was  raised  against  this 
decree — an  unknown  champion  whose  name 
has  never  been  found  out.    Yet  the  town  of 


This  photograph  was  taken  on  Roger  Williams  Avenue,  thilips- 
dale,  East  Providence.  A  glimpse  of  the  Seekcnk  River  is  seen 
in  the  background.     The  house  itself  has  no  historical  interest. 

The  tree  is  marked  with  a  tablet  bearing  these  words:  "This 
oak  tree  marks  the  first  dwelling  place  of  Roger  Williams  after 
his  banishment  from  Salem,  Mass.,  in  1636,  which  he  abandoned 
in  the  spring  of  that  year  by  request  of  Governor  Winslow  of 
Plymouth,  The  spring  is  160  feet  north.  This  tree  was  planted 
April  27,  1904,  by  the  Roger  Williams  Association." 


THE  WAR  OF  WORDS  47 

Salem,  more  merciful  than  its  magistrates, 
was  in  an  uproar  at  the  news. 

It  would  be  too  tedious  and  wearisome  to 
wade  through  all  the  disputes  of  those 
troublous  days.  After  a  lapse  of  nearly 
three  hundred  years,  it  is  not  easy  to  decide 
accurately  who  was  in  the  right  and  who  in 
the  wrong.  There  is  still  a  great  difference 
of  opinion  on  the  subject.  There  was,  with- 
out doubt,  something  of  right  and  wrong  on 
both  sides.  Some  of  the  points  Roger  Wil- 
liams fought  for  with  vigor  were  not  worth 
the  effort,  others  were  big  principles  that  the 
world  has  long  since  adopted. 

It  will  throw  some  light  on  the  matter  to 
know  just  what  the  disgraced  man  himself 
considered  the  true  grounds  of  his  banish- 
ment. He  tells  us  one  of  the  magistrates 
rightly  summed  up  the  offences  under  four 
heads : 

"First,  that  we  have  not  our  land  by 
patent  from  the  King,  but  that  the  natives 
are  the  true  owners  of  it,  and  that  we  ought 
to  repent  of  such  a  receiving  it  by  patent. 

"Secondly,  that  it  is  not  lawful  to  call  a 


48  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

wicked  person  to  swear,  to  pray,  as  being 
actions  of  God's  worship. 

"Thirdly,  that  it  is  not  lawful  to  hear  any 
of  the  ministers  of  the  parish  assemblies  in 
England. 

"Fourthly,  that  the  civil  magistrates' 
power  extends  only  to  the  bodies  and 
goods,  and  outward  state  of  men." 

How  harmless  these  opinions  seem  to- 
day! Tinged  perhajis  with  a  bit  of  narrow- 
ness, they  are  at  the  same  time  hardly 
"crimes"  for  which  a  person  should  be  cut 
off  from  his  fellow  men. 

In  regard  to  the  Indian  question,  the 
colonists  might  have  feared  trouble  with  the 
mother  country  as  a  result  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams' utterances.  Puritanism  was  not  popu- 
lar with  the  King  and  he  would  not  be  in- 
clined to  look  more  kindly  upon  the  Massa- 
chusetts pioneers  when  one  of  their  number 
proclaimed  boldly  that  his  father  had  told 
"a  solemn  public  lie,  because,  in  his  patent, 
he  blessed  God  that  he  was  the  first  Chris- 
tian prince  that  had  discovered  the  land." 

As  to  the  principle  that  the  civil  power 
should   have    no    authority    over    the    con- 


THE  WAR  OF  WORDS  49 

sciences  of  men,  there  can  be  no  difference 
of  opinion.  In  this  respect,  at  least,  Roger 
WilHams  was  far  ahead  of  the  men  with 
whom  he  associated.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  were  sincere  in  their  horror  of  any 
theory  that  tended  to  divide  church  and 
state.  Little  did  they  guess  that  the  time 
would  come  when  the  two  would  be  entirely 
separate  and  that  the  honor  of  blazoning  the 
way  would  be  given  to  the  banished  Roger 
Williams.  Little  did  they  dream  that  there 
would  be  a  United  States  Constitution  with 
the  clauses:  "No  religious  test  shall  ever  be 
required  as  a  qualification  to  any  office  or 
public  trust  under  the  United  States,"  and 
"Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an 
establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the 
free  exercise  thereof." 

On  account  of  Roger  Williams'  poor 
health,  the  time  limit  of  six  weeks  was  ex- 
tended to  spring.  He  was  a  menace,  and 
yet  there  was  something  so  lovable  about 
him  that  even  his  enemies  could  not  hate 
him  very  hard. 

What  a  dreary  outlook  for  the  disgraced, 
disappointed  man  at  the  beginning  of  the 


50  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

new  year!  He  had  now  been  in  New  Eng- 
land a  little  less  than  five  years.  Instead  of 
having  gained  a  position  as  a  wonderful 
preacher  with  a  brilliant  future,  he  had  lost 
his  church  and  even  a  place  in  the  colony. 
That  same  church,  after  upholding  his  cause 
for  a  brief  period,  had  deserted  him.  The 
support  of  his  dear  ones  was  harder  than 
ever,  for  a  new  baby  had  come  into  the  Wil- 
liams household.  With  health  broken  down 
under  the  strain  of  his  trials,  the  husband 
and  father  was  yet  forced  to  begin  planning 
for  a  new  home  in  some  unknown  country 
to  the  west. 

The  day  of  banishment  was  hastened  when 
it  was  discovered  that  Roger  Williams  was 
holding  meetings  in  his  own  house.  "He 
did  use  to  entertain  company,'*  so  the  an- 
cient records  run,  "and  to  preach  to  them, 
even  of  such  points  as  he  had  been  censured 
for."  The  rumor  also  went  around  that  he 
had  decided  to  found  a  settlement  on  the 
shores  of  Narragansett  Bay  and  to  take 
along  with  him  about  twenty  persons  whom 
he  had  won  to  his  way  of  thinking.  Imme- 
diately the  authorities  were  alarmed.     It 


THE  WAR  OF  WORDS  51 

would  never  do  to  have  such  unsettled  men 
for  neighbors!  They  might  continue  to 
spread  their  dangerous  doctrines  among  the 
other  churches.  Why  not  dispose  of  their 
mischievous  leader  once  and  for  all  by  ship- 
ping him  back  to  England?  It  was  the 
easiest  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  for  a  vessel 
was  even  then  lying  at  anchor,  ready  to  sail. 

For  a  last  time  poor  Roger  Williams  was 
again  summoned  to  the  Boston  court.  He 
answered  that  he  was  not  able  to  attend.  A 
captain  by  the  name  of  Underbill  was  then 
sent  to  Salem  with  a  small  sailing-vessel  to 
bring  the  ringleader  back  with  him.  He 
landed  in  the  town  and  made  his  way  to  the 
home  of  the  man  he  sought.  A  patient, 
kindly  woman  appeared.  Was  her  husband 
at  home?  No.  Where  was  he,  then?  She 
did  not  know.  How  long  had  he  been  gone  ? 
Three  whole  days. 

Captain  Underbill  returned  to  Boston 
without  Roger  Williams, 


CHAPTER   V 

"a  corner  for  the  persecuted" 

Roger  Williams  now  faced  an  unknown, 
untried  future.  He  had  left  family  and 
home  comforts  behind  and  there  was  every 
prospect  of  suffering,  hardship,  possible 
hunger  ahead.  He  must  either  wander 
afoot  through  the  snow-covered,  trackless 
forests  or  undertake  an  uncertain  voyage  by 
sea.  The  latter  course  was  altogether  too 
risky.  By  skirting  the  coast,  he  was  liable 
to  run  into  the  very  men  who  were  seeking 
him. 

Whither  should  he  turn?  Who  would 
befriend  him?  There  was  not  much  choice 
in  the  matter.  He  must  find  shelter  with 
friendly  Indians.  There  were  four  persons 
who  either  shared  his  adventures  from  the 
start  or  else  joined  him  soon  after  he  left 
Salem — William  Harris,  John  Smith,  a 
miller  of  Dorchester  who  was,  like  Roger 
Williams,  banished  from  the  colony,  and 


''  THE  PERSECUTED  "  53 

two  youths,  Francis  Wickes  and  Thomas 
Angell. 

The  record  of  tliose  winter  months  is  very 
brief,  for  Roger  Williams  had  no  idea  he 
was  making  history.  But  suppose  we  let 
him  tell  the  story  in  his  own  words: 

"When  I  was  unkindly  and  un-Chris- 
tianly,  as  I  believe,  driven  from  my  house 
and  land  and  wife  and  children,  (in  the 
midst  of  a  New  England  winter,  now  about 
thirty-five  years  past,)  at  Salem,  that  ever- 
honored  Governor,  Mr.  Winthrop,  pri- 
vately wrote  to  me  to  steer  my  course  to 
Narragailsett  Bay  and  Indians,  for  many 
high  and  heavenly  and  public  ends  encour- 
aging me,  from  the  freeness  of  the  place 
from  any  English  claims  or  patents.  I  took 
his  prudent  motion  as  a  hint  and  voice  from 
God,  and  waiving  all  other  thoughts  and 
motions,  I  steered  my  course  from  Salem 
(though  in  winter  snow,  which  I  feel  yet) 
unto  these  parts,  wherein  I  may  say  Peniel, 
that  is,  I  have  seen  the  face  of  God." 

The  first  place  which  the  wanderer  de- 
cided upon  as  a  good  location  for  a  new 
home  was  a  spot  on  the  east  bank  of  the 


54  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

Seekonk  River.  The  land,  while  included 
in  Plymouth  territory,  was  obtained  from 
Massasoit,  the  Wampanoag  sachem,  whom 
Roger  Williams  considered  the  true  owner. 
It  seemed  a  favorable  stopping-place. 
Here,  during  the  mild  spring  days,  Roger 
Williams  alternately  tended  his  garden  and 
worked  upon  his  rude  dwelling,  all  the  time 
dreaming  of  the  day  when  his  good  wife 
and  babies  in  Salem  should  join  him. 

Alas!  his  plans  for  a  permanent  home 
here  were  never  to  be  realized.  No  sooner 
were  things  well  started  when  he  received 
a  friendly  hint  from  Governor  Winslow  that 
if  he  wished  to  avoid  further  trouble,  it 
would  be  well  for  him  to  choose  another 
home  site. 

"I  first  pitched  and  began  to  build  at 
Seekonk,  now  Rehoboth,  but  I  received  a 
letter  from  my  ancient  friend,  Mr.  Winslow, 
then  Governor  of  Plymouth,  professing  his 
own  and  others'  love  and  respect  to  me,  yet 
lovingly  advising  me,  since  I  was  fallen  into 
the  edge  of  their  bounds,  and  they  were 
loath  to  displease  the  Bay,  to  remove  but 
to  the  other  side  of  the  water,  and  then^  h^ 


"  THE  PERSECUTED  "  55 

said,  I  had  the  country  free  before  me,  and 
might  be  as  free  as  themselves,  and  we 
should  be  loving  neighbors  together." 

Discouraging  news,  indeed!  Was  there 
never  to  be  peace  or  rest  for  the  banished 
one? 

"And  surely,  between  those,  my  friends 
of  the  Bay  and  Plymouth,  I  was  sorely 
tossed  for  one  fourteen  weeks,  in  a  bitter 
winter  season,  not  knowing  what  bread  or 
bed  did  mean,  beside  the  yearly  loss  of  no 
small  matter  in  my  trading  with  English 
and  natives,  being  debarred  from  Boston, 
the  chief  mart  and  port  of  New  England. 
God  knows  that  many  thousand  pounds 
cannot  repay  the  losses  I  have  sustained." 

With  his  face  again  set  toward  some 
new,  unknown  home,  Roger  Williams  began 
reconnoitering.  By  this  time  (probably 
June,  1636),  he  had  been  joined  by  a  fifth 
refugee  from  Salem,  Joshua  Verin — per- 
haps several  others.  One  day,  embarking 
in  a  canoe,  Roger  Williams  sailed  down  the 
Seekonk  River  and  crossed  to  the  opposite 
shore.  The  story  is  told  that  at  a  jagged 
point,  later  called  Slate  Rock,  the  Indians 


56  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

came  down  to  the  water's  edge  and  greeted 
him  with  the  friendly  cry,  "What  cheer, 
Netop?"  or,  in  other  words,  "How  do  you 
do,  friend?"  Kindly  words,  even  though 
they  came  from  the  lips  of  savages!  Best 
of  all,  the  voyager  was  not  asked  to  "move 
on."  Was  it  not  a  good  omen  that  in  his 
search  for  a  permanent  home,  he  should  be 
greeted  first  of  all  by  the  Indians  with  whom 
he  had  labored  so  faithfully  and  lovingly? 

Whatcheer  Field,  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
rock,  became  the  property  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams and  was  used  by  him  for  planting. 
The  historic  rock  itself  is  now  hidden  under- 
ground back  from  the  shore,  but  the  spot 
has  been  marked  by  a  monument  dedicated 
"to  the  memory  of  Roger  Williams,  the 
Apostle  of  Soul  Liberty."  The  story  of  the 
meeting  of  the  red  men  and  their  white 
friend  has  been  further  preserved  in  the 
form  of  the  city  seal  of  Providence. 

Roger  Williams  did  not,  however,  build 
at  this  point.  The  Indians  probably  di- 
rected him  to  better  land  at  the  west  where 
there  was  running  water.  With  his  com- 
panions, he  investigated  the  situation.    Pad- 


This  monument,  erected  in  1906,  is  dedicated  "To  the  memory 
of  Roger  WilHams,  the  Apostle  of  Soul  Liberty."  It  is  at  the 
foot  of  Williams  St.,  Providence,  in  Roger  Williams  Square, 
given  to  the  city  by  the  heirs  of  Governor  James  Fenner. 
A  bronze  bas-relief  shows  the  landing  of  Roger  Williams  and 
his  friends. 

The  monument  bears  these  words:  "Below  this  spot,  then  at 
the  water's  edge,  stood  the  rock  on  which,  according  to  tradi- 
tion, Roger  Williams,  an  exile  for  his  devotion  to  freedom  of 
conscience,  landed  16.S6. " 


"  THE  PERSECUTED  "  57 

dling  to  the  south,  they  rounded  a  point  of 
land,  and  then  turned  north  until  they 
reached  a  river  bearing  the  Indian  name 
Moshassuek.  At  a  point  near  a  pure,  bub- 
bling spring,  the  little  company  landed, 
realizing  that  at  last  they  had  found  a  good 
abiding-place.  Moving  day — or,  more 
likely,  a  series  of  moving  days — followed. 

It  actually  seemed  as  if  the  wanderer's 
darkest  days  were  over  and,  in  gratitude  to 
God  for  his  goodness,  Roger  Williams  gave 
the  quaint  name  of  Providence  to  the  settle  - 
ment  that  was  now  begun.  At  first  he  had 
no  intention  of  founding  an  English  com- 
munity. "My  soul's  desire  was  to  do  the 
natives  good"  are  his  own  words,  adding 
that  he  had  no  inclination  for  other  com- 
pany. Out  of  the  bigness  of  his  heart,  how- 
ever, he  let  in  a  few  distressed  souls,  then 
welcomed  a  few  more,  until  finally  Provi- 
dence became  "a  corner  as  a  shelter  for  the 
poor  and  persecuted." 

In  regard  to  Roger  Williams'  occupation 
of  the  new  land,  only  after  he  had  purchased 
it  from  the  Indians  did  he  take  possession. 
He  practiced  exactly  what  he  had  preached 


58  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

about  the  simple  justice  of  paying  the  na- 
tives for  the  land  which  they  rightfully 
claimed.  He  was  on  Narragansett  territory 
and  therefore  negotiated  with  the  sachems 
of  that  tribe,  Canonicus  and  his  nephew, 
Miantonomo.  Having  mortgaged  his  house 
at  Salem,  he  was  able  to  make  such  a 
purchase. 

Only  the  close  friendship  between  Roger 
Williams  and  the  Narragansett  chiefs  could 
have  brought  about  this  transfer  of  property 
thus  easily.  Though  money  and  presents 
paid  for  it,  still  both  parties  looked  upon  it 
as  a  gift.  "I  was  the  procurer  of  the  pur- 
chase," said  Roger  Williams,  "not  by  monies 
nor  payment,  the  natives  being  so  shy  and 
jealous,  that  monies  could  not  do  it;  but  by 
that  language,  acquaintance  and  favor  with 
the  natives  and  other  advantages  which  it 
pleased  God  to  give  me.  .  .  .  Canonicus 
was  not  to  be  stirred  with  money  to  sell  his 
lands  to  let  in  foreigners.  'Tis  true  he  re- 
ceived presents  and  gratuities  many  of  me, 
but  it  was  not  thousand  nor  ten  thousands 
of  money  could  have  bought  of  him  an  Eng- 
lish   entrance     into    the    Bay.  .  .  .  And, 


''  THE  PERSECUTED  "  59 

therefore,  I  declare  to  posterity  that  were 
it  not  for  the  favor  God  gave  me  with 
Canonicus,  none  of  these  parts,  no,  not 
Rhode  Island,  had  been  purchased  or 
obtained,  for  I  never  got  anything  out  of 
Canonicus  but  by  gift." 

This  steadfast  and  beautiful  friendship 
between  Roger  Williams  and  the  Narra- 
gansett  sachems  endured  during  the  lifetime 
of  all,  although  Canonicus  was  "most  shy 
of  all  English  to  his  last  breath."  Here 
were  neighbors  with  whom  there  was  no 
quarrel.  They  and  the  founder  of  Provi- 
dence gave  and  took,  lent  and  borrowed,  in 
true  neighborly  fashion.  Roger  Williams 
allowed  them  the  use  of  his  boats,  made 
them  presents,  loaned  them  his  servant,  gave 
them  freely  of  his  time  and  services  when- 
ever needed,  even  lodging  as  many  as  fifty 
natives  at  a  time  in  his  humble  home.  Was 
it  any  wonder  that  the  "barbarous  heart" 
of  Canonicus  loved  him  "as  his  son  to  his 
last  gasp"? 

The  earliest  agreements  with  the  Narra- 
gansetts  were  probably  by  word  of  mouth, 
for  the  first  written  deed,  dated  two  years 


60  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

later,  refers  to  territory  already  bought 
on  the  Moshassuck  and  Woonasqiiatueket 
Rivers.  It  confirms  this  sale  and  continues : 
"As  also  in  consideration  of  the  many  kind- 
nesses and  services  he  (Roger  Williams) 
hath  continually  done  for  us,  both  with  our 
friends  Massachusetts,  as  also  as  Quinicki- 
cutt  (Connecticut),  and  Apaum  or  Plym- 
outh, we  do  freely  give  unto  him  all  that 
land  from  those  rivers,  reaching  to  Paw- 
tuxet  River,  as  also  the  grass  and  meadows 
upon  the  said  Pawtuxet  River."  This  old 
document  bears  the  mark  of  Canonicus,  a 
bow,  that  of  Miantonomo,  an  arrow,  and 
also  the  marks  of  two  Indian  witnesses. 
Thus  Roger  Williams  could  truthfully  say 
that  this  land  was  "as  truly  his  as  any  man's 
coat  upon  his  back."  Later,  he  generously 
divided  the  territory  he  had  bought  among 
his  associates,  who  then  numbered  twelve, 
so  that  he  and  they  each  received  an  equal 
share. 

In  the  summer  of  1636,  Mrs.  Williams 
and  her  two  small  children  succeeded  in 
reaching  Providence.    Once  more  the  future 


"  THE  PERSECUTED  "  61 

looked  bright  to  the  patient  husband  and 
father. 

The  government  of  Providence  was  of  the 
simplest  kind.  A  compact  was  drawn  up 
and  signed  by  the  settlers,  in  which  they 
agreed  to  uphold  every  measure  that  was 
for  "the  public  good  of  the  body,"  but  ''only 
in  civil  things/'  What  did  this  mean?  That 
at  last  a  colony  was  founded  in  which  church 
and  state  were  wholly  independent  of  each 
other.  It  was  precisely  the  sort  of  agree- 
ment we  should  expect  Roger  Williams  to 
provide  for  the  new  settlement.  It  pro- 
claimed to  the  world,  "Here  is  a  real  democ- 
racy— a  government  by  the  people.  Here 
is  religious  liberty  without  interference  from 
the  state.  Here  is  a  society  in  which  nobody 
need  be  a  church  member  in  order  to  vote." 

The  privilege  of  worshiping  as  one 
pleased  attracted  many  persons  in  the  neigh- 
boring settlements  and  even  across  the 
water.  As  soon  as  they  heard  of  Roger 
Williams'  daring  venture,  they  were  eager 
to  cast  their  lot  with  him. 

Now  while  the  new  settlement  was  thus 
broad   and   reasonable,    the   Massachusetts 


62  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

Bay  Colony  grew  even  narrower  than  be- 
fore. Differences  of  opinion  in  church  mat- 
ters continued  to  arise,  for  never  in  the 
history  of  the  world  has  it  been  possible 
for  all  men  to  think  alike.  Punishments 
for  "heresy"  were  still  the  order  of  the  day. 
Banishments  were  frequent.  Some  of  the 
exiles  thus  disgraced  were  obliged  to  seek 
new  homes  as  Roger  Williams  had  done. 

Among  these  were  William  Coddington 
and  John  Clarke,  a  learned  physician,  both 
of  whom  had  much  to  do  with  the  history 
of  the  new  colony  afterwards.  With  the 
help  of  Roger  Williams,  the  new-comers 
purchased  the  island  of  Aquidneck  in  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay  from  Canonicus  and  Mian- 
tonomo.  It  was  this  island,  later  called 
Rhode  Island,  that  gave  its  name  to  the 
state.  The  Indians  then  residing  on  the 
island  agi-eed  to  vacate  in  return  for  ten 
coats  and  twenty  hoes. 

Another  exile  from  the  Bay  Colony  was 
Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson,  a  woman  of  bril- 
liant and  wonderful  mind,  who  had  offended 
the  magistrates  for  holding  firmly  to  certain 
religious  opinions  and  teaching  the  same. 


"  THE  PERSECUTED  ''  63 

She  joined  the  little  Aquidneck  settlement 
and  as  long  as  she  remained  there,  enjoyed 
peace  and  freedom  from  persecution. 

To  return  to  the  colony  at  Providence. 
It  was  an  experiment  in  every  sense  of  the 
word.  For  one  thing,  mere  existence  was 
to  prove  a  struggle.  Life  was  hard  and 
crude.  The  early  settlers  were  unfitted,  in 
many  ways,  to  meet  the  difficulties  of  build- 
ing up  a  new  community.  Few  were  skilled 
laborers,  all  were  poor.  Men  of  profes- 
sional training  were  unknown.  No  doctor's 
sign  was  in  evidence  and  for  many  years, 
whenever  medical  advice  or  medicine  was 
needed,  Roger  Williams  had  to  send  outside 
the  settlement  for  it. 

Land  was  plentiful,  it  is  true,  but  scarcely 
anything  else.  Yet  one  early  precaution 
taken  by  Roger  Williams  did  much  to  lessen 
the  hardships  of  those  first  years.  He  and 
Governor  Winthrop  purchased  the  island  of 
Prudence  in  the  Bay  as  a  grazing-place  for 
goats  and  swine.  Twenty  fathom  of  wam- 
pum and  two  coats  was  the  price  paid. 
Roger  Williams'  curious  description  pic- 
tures it  as  "spectacle-wise  and  between  a 


64  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

mile  or  two  in  circuit."  This  transaction 
plainly  showed  his  tact  as  well  as  the  high 
esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  Canonicus. 
It  seems  that  the  sachem  wished  to  reserve 
half  of  the  island,  but  was  anxious  to  have 
Roger  Williams  for  a  neighbor.  Two  short 
extracts  from  Roger  Williams'  correspond- 
ence with  Winthrop  tell  the  whole  story  of 
the  proceedings  that  followed.  In  the  first 
letter,  he  wrote,  "I  think  if  I  go  over,  I  shall 
obtain  the  whole" ;  the  second  letter  records 
simply,  "I  have  bought  and  paid  for  the 
island." 

The  purchase  indicated  good  judgment 
and  foresight,  for  here  the  live  stock  could 
not  stray  far,  it  had  good  pasturage,  and 
was  conveniently  near  salt  marshes,  which 
were  necessary  to  keep  it  in  the  best  con- 
dition. As  one  writer  has  put  it,  Prudence 
Island  was  the  stock-farm  and  market- 
garden  of  Providence,  supplies  being  carried 
back  and  forth  by  canoes. 

The  early  "home  lots"  of  the  Providence 
settlers,  as  they  were  called,  extended  from 
the  main  or  Town  Street  eastward,  up  a 
steep  hill,  and  over  back  in  the  direction  of 


"  THE  PERSECUTED  ''  65 

the  Seekonk.  They  were  generous  in  size, 
at  least  five  acres  in  extent,  large  enough 
for  house,  garden,  orchard  and  burial  plot. 
Roger  Williams'  house  was  not  far  from 
the  spring  where  he  landed.  In  modern 
Providence  it  is  hard  to  find  any  trace  of 
the  early  village  that  was  started  on  the 
banks  of  the  Moshassuck,  yet  now  and  then 
a  voice  out  of  the  past  takes  one  back  over 
the  centuries  to  the  Providence  of  Roger 
Williams.  The  main  thoroughfare  still  runs 
through  the  heart  of  the  city  and  on  an 
ancient  building  in  the  street  is  a  tablet 
bearing  the  legend,  brief  but  thrilling  with 
history:  "Under  this  house  still  flows  the 
Roger  Williams  spring." 

Hospitality  and  neighborliness  were 
common  in  early  Providence  days,  for 
everybody  was  dependent  upon  everybody 
else.  Roger  Williams  and  his  good  wife 
kept  open  house  for  all.  Now  they  took 
in  a  sick  soldier  and  nursed  him  back  to 
health  and  strength,  once  they  sheltered  an 
Indian  with  a  hurt  foot,  and  even  went  so 
far  as  to  allow  Miantonomo  to  hold  his 
"barbarous  court"  under  their  roof! 


66  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

The  Indians,  in  fact,  early  found  a  way 
to  the  Williams  door.  They  frequently 
came  with  messages  from  the  other  colonies 
or  carried  letters  from  Roger  Williams  to 
his  neighboring  friends.  These  were  often 
accompanied  by  simple  gifts,  such  as  some 
chestnuts  from  Mrs.  Williams  for  Mrs. 
Winthrop  or  a  Narragansett-woven  basket 
for  the  same  lady  from  the  Indian  wife  of 
Miantonomo.  The  carriers  themselves  were 
always  rewarded,  of  course.  Roger  Wil- 
liams must  have  kept  on  hand  an  extra 
supply  of  coats,  trousers,  tools  and  trinkete 
to  satisfy  their  eager,  childish  desires. 

Besides  the  struggle  for  a  living,  there 
were  other  matters  which  gave  the  founder 
of  Providence  great  concern.  We  should 
like  to  record  that  his  followers  lived  in 
peace  and  harmony,  that  there  was  n^ver 
any  discord,  that  they  showed  the  Bay 
Colony  they  were  well-behaved,  ideal  neigh- 
bors. This  would  not  be  true  history,  how- 
ever. The  colonists  were  only  human. 
Besides,  not  all  were  able  to  understand  the 
real  meaning  of  the  advanced  principles  for 
which  their  leader  stood.    They  mistook  lib- 


'*  THE  PERSECUTED  ''  67 

erty  for  license.  Quarrels  arose  from  time 
to  time  and  disturbances  were  sometimes 
caused  by  troublesome  persons  who  would 
be  called  "cranks"  to-day.  Still  the  colony 
was  bound  to  outgrow  these  petty  differ- 
ences. No  settlement  in  the  New  World 
had  a  better  right  to  a  successful  future, 
for  none  was  built  upon  a  truer,  surer 
foundation. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  PEQUOT  WAR 

Shortly  after  the  founding  of  Providence, 
Roger  Williams  had  an  opportunity  to 
show  the  people  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colony  what  he  thought  of  them.  It  was  in 
his  power  to  seriously  injure  them;  to  "pay 
them  back,"  as  it  were,  for  all  he  had  suf- 
fered at  their  hands.  Instead,  with  his 
usual  sweetness  of  disposition,  he  returned 
good  for  evil,  "good  measure,  pressed  down, 
and  running  over."  For  injustice,  he  had 
nothing  but  forgiveness,  for  ill-treatment, 
only  love  and  service.  It  required  true 
nobility  of  character  to  act  as  he  did. 

Grave  danger  threatened  all  New  Eng- 
land at  this  time — the  possibility  of  a  wide- 
spread Indian  outbreak.  In  reality,  it  was 
more  than  a  possibility — it  was  almost  a 
certainty.  Already  there  had  been  several 
indications  that  the  savages  meant  to  make 
trouble.      Of    all   the    neighboring   tribes, 


THE  PEQUOT  WAR  69 

the  colonists  had  most  to  fear  from  the 
Pequots.  These  were  a  powerful  and 
dreaded  people  who  occupied  territory  at 
the  west  of  the  Narragansetts  in  what  is  now 
the  eastern  part  of  Connecticut.  Some  time 
before  this,  they  had  been  suspected  of  hav- 
ing a  hand  in  the  murder  of  a  number  of 
white  traders  on  the  Connecticut  River. 
Now,  the  same  year  that  Roger  Williams' 
new  settlement  was  begun,  another  English 
trader,  John  Oldham  by  name,  was  killed 
off  Block  Island  under  circumstances 
similar  to  those  of  the  first  outrage. 

At  this  point  Roger  Williams  comes  into 
the  story.  He  sent  news  of  the  tragedy  to 
Governor  Vane  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and 
thus  hastened  the  preparations  of  that 
colony  to  protect  itself.  A  force  under  the 
command  of  the  doughty  John  Endicott  was 
sent  into  the  Pequot  country  to  bring  the 
natives  to  terms.  The  Massachusetts  men 
inflicted  losses  by  burning  wigwams  and 
destroying  crops,  but  failed  to  punish  with 
any  degree  of  thoroughness.  The  expedi- 
tion had  but  one  effect — to  madden  the 
Pequots  to  further  activity. 


70  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

A  feeling  of  alarm  and  insecurity  spread 
throughout  all  the  settlements.  The  In- 
dians had  signed  treaties,  it  is  ti-ue,  but  it 
was  no  longer  safe  to  trust  their  word. 
There  was  reason  to  think  that  the  enmity 
of  the  Pequots  was  only  the  first  step 
toward  a  general  massacre.  To  better  carry 
out  their  purposes,  the  Indians  tried  to  form 
an  alliance  with  their  near  neighbors  and 
former  enemies,  the  Narragansetts. 

What  could  be  done  ?  Who  had  influence 
enough  to  break  up  this  proposed  league — 
to  turn  the  friendship  of  the  Narragansetts 
from  their  red  neighbors  to  their  white 
neighbors?  One  man,  and  one  only,  pos- 
sessed that  power.  He  was  the  "dangerous" 
founder  of  Providence,  who  had  been  turned 
out  of  Massachusetts  in  disgrace. 

In  spite  of  this  fact,  the  magistrates  of 
the  Bay  Colony  lost  no  time  in  appealing 
to  Roger  Williams  to  save  them.  He  re- 
sponded promptly,  willingly.  The  story  of 
his  perilous  mission  among  the  Narragan- 
setts reads  more  like  a  chapter  from  some 
exciting  book  of  imaginary  adventure  than 
sober  history: 


THE  PEQUOT  WAR  71 

"The  Lord  helped  me  immediately  to  put 
my  life  into  my  hand,  and,  scarce  acquaint- 
ing my  wife,  to  ship  myself,  all  alone  in  a 
poor  canoe,  and  to  cut  through  a  stormy 
wind,  with  great  seas,  every  minute  in 
hazard  of  life,  to  the  sachem's  house.  Three 
days  and  nights  my  business  forced  me  to 
lodge  and  mix  with  the  bloody  Pequot  am- 
bassadors, whose  hands  and  arms,  me- 
thought,  reeked  with  the  blood  of  my 
countrymen,  murdered  and  massacred  by 
them  on  Connecticut  River,  and  from  whom 
I  could  not  but  nightly  look  for  their  bloody 
knives  at  my  own  throat  also.  God  won- 
drously  preserved  me,  and  helped  me  toi 
break  to  pieces  the  Pequots'  negotiation  and 
design,  and  to  make,  promote  and  finish,  by 
many  travels  and  charges,  the  English 
league  with  the  Narragansetts  and  Mohe- 
gans  against  the  Pequots." 

So  successfully  indeed  did  Roger  Wil- 
liams risk  his  life  that  in  the  autumn  of  that 
same  year  a  party  of  Narragansetts,  includ- 
ing Miantonomo,  journeyed  to  Boston  to 
form  a  treaty  with  the  English.  Among 
other  things,  it  provided  for  a  peace  between 


72  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

the  Narragansetts  and  the  colonists  and 
contained  a  promise  that  neither  party 
should  make  peace  with  the  Pequots  without 
the  other's  consent,  or  that^  in  case  of  war, 
due  notice  should  be  given.  The  old  records 
say  that  after  the  treaty  was  concluded,  the 
visiting  Indians  were  given  a  dinner,  then 
"conveyed  out  of  town  by  some  musketeers 
and  dismissed  with  a  volley  of  shot." 

Still  the  matter  was  not  entirely  closed, 
for  the  colonists,  lacking  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  Indian  tongue,  could  not  make 
the  Narragansetts  understand  certain  parts 
of  the  compact,  which  was  written  in  Eng- 
lish. An  interpreter  was  needed,  so  a  copy 
of  the  treaty  was  sent  to  Roger  Williams 
that  he  might  clearly  and  simply  explain  it 
to  the  Narragansetts.  He  might  be  a  dan- 
gerous neighbor,  but  he  was  certainly  a  most 
convenient  one! 

The  Pequot  War  took  place,  after  all,  but 
without  the  alliance  of  the  Narragansetts. 
Instead  of  resulting  in  the  wholesale  de- 
struction of  the  whites,  it  marked  the  doom 
of  the  tribe  which  was  foolhardy  enough  to 
attempt  it.     The  three  colonies,  Massachu- 


THE  PEQUOT  WAR  73 

setts,  Plymouth  and  Connecticut,  united  to 
crush  the  Indian  menace. 

A  detachment  from  the  Bay  Colony  in 
charge  of  General  Stoughton  marched  to 
Connecticut  by  way  of  Providence.  Roger 
Williams  hospitably  entertained  them,  giv- 
ing the  visitors  of  his  best.  Poor  Mrs.  Wil- 
liams must  have  been  put  to  her  utmost 
resources  to  act  as  hostess  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty  soldiers!  As  they  continued  on 
their  way,  Roger  Williams  accompanied 
them  some  distance  in  order  to  bring  about 
a  meeting  with  their  allies,  the  Narragan- 
setts,  and  so  establish  good  feeling. 

Under  Captain  John  Mason,  the  Con- 
necticut settlers,  aided  by  both  English  and 
Indian  allies,  surprised  the  Pequots  at  Fort 
Mystic,  May,  1637,  and  with  fire  and  sword, 
practically  wiped  them  out  in  an  hour's 
time.  A  swamp  battle  soon  afterwards 
completed  the  extermination  of  this  once 
brave  and  valiant  tribe.  The  few  who  es- 
caped were  distributed  as  captives.  The 
very  name  Pequot  disappeared  from  thei 
map  of  the  Connecticut  country.  The  Pe- 
quot  River  became  the   Thames   and  the 


74  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

town  of  that  name  was  changed  to  New 
London. 

During  the  Pequot  War  and  the  period 
just  preceding  it,  Roger  Williams  was  kept 
busy.  No  one  could  give  better  advice  than 
he  at  this  time,  aided  as  he  was  by  his  friend- 
liness with  the  Narragansetts.  He  became, 
in  fact,  a  news  agency,  continually  sending 
the  latest  bits  of  information  to  Massachu- 
setts and  in  other  ways  serving  as  a  valuable 
go-between.  He  kept  the  English  informed 
of  the  Pequots'  designs  as  far  as  he  knew 
them  and  once  submitted  a  rude  map 
showing  the  positions  of  the  Indians. 

He  occupied  himself,  too,  with  another 
matter — keeping  the  Narragansett  sachem, 
Canonicus,  in  good  humor.  In  one  of  the 
interesting  old  letters  of  Roger  Williams 
written  to  his  friends  at  the  Bay,  he  tells 
how  he  "sweetened  the  spirit"  of  the  aged 
chieftain  in  a  very  literal  way.  The  super- 
stitious Canonicus,  it  seems,  had  blamed  the 
English  for  sending  the  plague  among  his 
people,  but  Roger  Williams  convinced  him 
of  his  mistake  and  then  requested  some 
sugar  for  the  sachem.     "I  find,"  said  he, 


THE  PEQUOT  WAR  75 

"that  Canonicus  would  gladly  accept  of  a 
box  of  eight  or  ten  pounds  of  sugar,  and  in- 
deed he  told  me  he  would  thank  Mr. 
Governor  for  a  box  full." 

There  was  great  rejoicing  throughout 
New  England  when  the  Pequots  were 
finally  disposed  of.  A  day  of  solemn 
thanksgiving  and  rejoicing  was  appointed 
in  Massachusetts,  the  successful  warriors 
were  feasted,  and  services  held  in  all  the 
churches.  And  what  reward  was  given  the 
man  who,  more  than  anybody  else,  had 
saved  his  countrymen  from  a  dreadful  mas- 
sacre by  winning  over  the  Narragansetts  ? 
Winthrop  and  others  debated  whether  it 
would  not  be  well  to  recall  him  from  banish- 
ment or  show  some  other  mark  of  favor. 
Nothing  came  of  the  discussion.  The  de- 
cree of  banishment  remained  in  force  and 
not  so  much  as  a  vote  of  thanks  was  given 
Roger  Williams. 

Still  the  main  thought  in  his  tender  heart 
at  this  time  seems  to  have  been  that  too 
much  severity  had  been  used  in  dealing  with 
the  Pequots.  "I  fear  that  some  innocent 
blood  cries  at  Connecticut,"  he  wrote  his 


76  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

friend  Winthrop.  Again,  when  hands  of 
the  vanquished  Indians  were  sent  to  Boston 
and  few,  if  any,  of  the  Bay  people  protested 
against  this  horrible  custom,  Roger  Wil- 
liams once  more  raised  his  voice.  He  feared 
"those  dead  hands  were  no  pleasing  sight" 
and  regretted  that  he  could  not  have  pre- 
vented such  a  display  of  barbarism  without 
offending  the  Indians.  "I  have  always  shown 
dislike,"  he  added,  "to  such  dismembering 
the  dead." 

After  the  war,  Roger  Williams  repeat- 
edly acted  as  peace-maker  in  lesser  differ- 
ences between  the  English  and  the  natives. 
To  all  he  meted  out  the  same  measure  of 
fairness  and  justice.  If  the  Indians  in- 
flicted injuries,  he  demanded  that  they 
"make  good"  with  the  whites;  if  it  was  the 
whites  who  ill-treated  the  Indians,  he  was 
no  less  insistent  that  they  do  the  right  thing 
in  turn.  No  grievance  of  the  red  men  was 
too  trivial  for  him  to  investigate.  Thus  he 
straightened  out  a  matter  of  some  missing 
kettles  and  a  disputed  canoe,  concerning 
which  Miantonomo's  feelings  had  been  hurt, 


THE  PEQUOT  WAR  77 

with  all  the  seriousness  he  would  have  given 
a  matter  of  state. 

One  interesting  event  of  the  year  1638 
that  meant  much  to  Roger  Williams  was 
the  birth  of  his  oldest  son.  He  was  the  first 
male  child  born  within  the  limits  of  the  new 
colony  and  was  therefore  named  Providence 
after  the  settlement  his  father  had  founded. 
An  appropriate  name,  surely,  but  what  a 
curious  one  for  a  poor  child  to  carry  around ! 

There  is  no  record  that  any  church  build- 
ing existed  in  the  earliest  days  of  Provi- 
dence. Poverty  may  have  been  one  reason 
for  this  lack.  Meetings  were  held  in  differ- 
ent homes,  however,  and  as  Roger  Williams 
was  the  only  ordained  minister,  he  con- 
ducted the  services.  There  was  no  persecu- 
tion for  non-attendance — of  that  we  may  be 
sure.  Among  the  people  who  came  to 
Providence  because  they  could  not  enjoy 
their  religion  unmolested  elsewhere,  were 
the  Anabaptists  or  Baptists,  as  their  name 
was  shortened  in  later  years.  Their  views 
were  much  more  liberal  and  attractive  than 
strict  Puritanism  and  therefore  interested 
Roger  Williams.     He  allowed  one  of  their 


78  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

number,  Ezekiel  HoUiman,  to  baptize  him 
in  the  new  faith  and  he  then  baptized  HoUi- 
man and  several  others.  For  this  public 
profession,  Roger  Williams  and  his  wife 
were  excommunicated  from  the  Salem 
church.  He  is  generally  regarded  as  the 
first  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church,  but  he 
was  not  actively  connected  with  it  for  more 
than  a  few  months.  No  doctrine  of  the  day 
could  quite  satisfy  a  man  of  his  open  mind 
and  earnest  determination  to  search  for  the 
truth.  He  became  what  was  then  known  as 
a  "seeker." 

The  Baptists,  however,  continued  to  pros- 
per and  increase  in  numbers.  They  still 
claim  Roger  Williams  as  the  founder  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  of  America.  The  an- 
cient meeting-house  bearing  that  name 
(though  it  is  not  the  original  •edifice  of  the 
society)  has  a  bell  with  a  quaint  inscription 
which  proclaims  to  the  world  the  principles 
upon  which  both  the  city  and  the  Baptist 
congregation  were  founded: 

"  For  freedom  of  conscience  the  town  was  first 
planted, 
Persuasion,  not  force,  was  used  by  the  people; 


The  First  Baptist  Church  of  Providence  is  a  dignified 
and  venerable  white  structure  on  North  Main  Street,  the 
"Town  Street"  of  Roger  WilHams'  day.  It  is  modeled 
after  St.  Martin's-in-the-Fields,  London.  Its  bell  still 
rings  the  curfew  at  nine  o'clock  each  evening. 

The  First  Baptist  Society,  the  first  in  America,  was 
founded  in  1638,  and  met  either  in  the  open  air  or  at  the 
homes  of  its  members  during  the  first  sixty-two  years 
of  its  existence.  Roger  Williams  is  generally  considered 
the  first  pastor  of  the  church. 


THE  PEQUOT  WAR  79 

This  church  is  the  eldest  and  has  not  recanted, 
Enjoying  and  granting  bell,  temple,  and  steeple." 

To  rightly  understand  the  last  line,  we 
must  know  that  in  England  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  those  worshippers  who  had 
separated  from  the  established  church  had 
neither  bell,  temple  nor  steeple.  This  is 
only  another  instance  of  the  liberal  spirit  of 
the  early  inhabitants  of  Providence. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  INDIAN  KEY 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Indians  had  much  to 
do  with  Roger  Williams'  history  from  the 
very  beginning  of  his  life  in  the  New  World. 
He  had  lodged  with  them,  befriended  them, 
studied  their  language,  traded  with  them, 
and  had  been  their  interpreter.  All  this  was 
of  benefit  to  both  natives  and  colonists. 

In  1643,  another  opportunity  came  for 
Roger  Williams  to  be  of  still  further  service 
to  his  countrymen  and  their  red  neighbors. 
An  important  mission  (about  which  we  will 
speak  later)  took  him  to  England  that  year 
and  he  made  the  most  of  the  leisure  afforded 
by  the  long  sea  voyage  to  put  into  book 
form  what  he  had  learned  about  the  Indian 
language  and  customs.  "I  drew  the  mate- 
rials," he  explained,  "in  a  rude  lump  at  sea, 
that  I  might  not  lightly  lose  what  I  had  so 
dearly  bought  in  some  few  years'  hardship." 

Roger  Williams'  purpose  was  to  bring 
about  a  closer  relation  between  the  whites 


THE  INDIAN  KEY  81 

and  the  natives.  He  believed  they  could  be 
mutually  helpful  if  the  book  were  used  as 
a  guide. 

"A  little  key  may  open  a  box  where  lies 
a  bunch  of  keys.  .  .  .  One  candle  will  light 
ten  thousand,  and  it  may  please  God  to 
bless  a  little  leaven  to  season  the  mightj^ 
lump  of  those  peoples  and  territories." 

The  work  was  published  in  London  be- 
fore the  close  of  the  year  under  an  odd  and 
lengthy  title  which  indicated  that  the  labor 
put  into  it  was  at  least  thorough.  It  was 
called  "A  Key  into  the  Language  of  Amer- 
ica; or,  An  help  to  the  Language  of  the 
Natives  in  that  part  of  America,  called 
New-England.  Together,  with  brief  Ob- 
servations of  the  Customs,  Manners  and 
Worships,  etc.  of  the  aforesaid  Natives,  in 
Peace  and  War,  in  Life  and  Death.  On  all 
which  are  added  Spiritual  Observations, 
General  and  Particular  by  the  Author,  of 
chief  and  special  use  (upon  all  occasions,)  to 
all  the  English  Inhabiting  those  parts;  yet 
pleasant  and  profitable  to  the  view  of  all 
men."  Let  us  hope  that  the  persons  who 
asked  for  the  volume  in  the  London  book- 


82  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

shops  did  not  attempt  to  give  the  title  word 
for  word! 

No  man  of  that  day  was  better  fitted  to 
undertake  such  a  task  as  the  writing  of  the 
Indian  Key  than  Roger  Williams,  for  no 
man  had  lived  so  intimately  with  the  New 
England  Indians.  The  quaint  book  is  to-day 
considered  very  valuable  and  very  precious 
among  book-lovers.  Of  course  most  of  the 
history  concerns  the  Narragansetts  particu- 
larly, but  Roger  Williams  also  made  use  of 
the  knowledge  he  had  gained  from  other 
tribes. 

Suppose  we  take  a  few  peeps  into  this 
fascinating  old  volume,  for  nowhere  can  we 
find  a  better  picture  of  the  author's  "bar- 
barians." We  notice,  first,  that  it  is  made 
up  something  like  a  dictionary.  On  the  left 
side  of  each  page  are  the  Indian  words  and 
phrases  and,  on  the  right,  their  meaning 
in  English.  But  what  a  difficult  diction- 
ary! Think  of  mastering  such  mouth-fill- 
ing words  as  "Muckquachuckquemese"  or 
"Maumashinnaunamaiita."  Only  the  pa- 
tience of  a  Roger  Williams  could  ever  have 
discovered  that  such  enigmas  meant  "a  little 


THE  INDIAN  KEY  83 

boy"  and  "Let  us  make  a  good  fire."  It  is 
interesting  to  know  that  the  very  first  phrase 
in  the  book  is  the  famihar  *'What  cheer, 
Netop?"  or  the  first  greeting  that  reached 
Roger  WiUiams'  ears  in  the  land  of 
the  Narragansetts.  Besides  explaining  the 
commoner  expressions  of  the  Indians,  the 
author  includes  notes  about  their  life  and 
habits.  At  the  close  of  each  chapter  are  a 
few  lines  of  simple,  crude  verse  that  sounds 
for  all  the  world  like  the  pointed  sermons 
with  which  good  old-fashioned  stories  used 
to  end. 

As  to  the  religion  of  the  Indians,  Roger 
Williams  tells  his  readers  that  he  has  been 
given  the  names  of  thirty-seven  different 
gods  which  they  solemnly  worship.  Among 
these,  Cautantouwit,  the  great  god  of  the 
southwest,  was  a  general  favorite.  From 
his  field  came  their  corn  and  beans  and  it  is 
to  his  abode  their  souls  will  go  at  death,  pro- 
vided they  have  lived  good  lives.  All  mur- 
derers, thieves  and  liars,  on  the  other  hand, 
must  wander  restlessly  abroad.  Besides 
Cautantouwit,  many  other  gods  are  men- 
tioned,   such    as    the    Eastern,    Western, 


84  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

Northern  and  Southern  Gods,  the  House 
God,  the  Woman's  God,  the  Children's 
God,  the  Sun  and  the  Moon  Gods,  and  the 
Fire  God. 

"  The  Indians  find  the  sun  so  sweet, 
He  is  a  god,  they  say ; 
Giving  them  light  and  heat  and  fruit, 
And  guidance  all  the  day. 

"  They  have  no  help  of  clock  or  watch, 
And  sun  they  overprize. 
Having  those  artificial  helps,  the  sun 
We  unthankfuUy  despise." 

The  superstitions  of  the  Indians  were 
many  and  curious,  as  is  seen  by  the  follow- 
ing: Though  crows  frequently  stole  their 
corn,  yet  scarcely  one  native  in  a  hundred 
would  put  them  to  death.  Why?  Because 
they  firmly  believed  that  the  crow  first 
brought  them  a  grain  of  Indian  corn  in  one 
ear  and  an  Indian  bean  in  the  other  from 
Cautantouwit's  field.  Another  superstition 
was  their  childlike  faith  in  the  power  of 
their  priests  and  conjurers  to  work  cures. 
To  Roger  Williams'  way  of  thinking,  these 
"wise  men"  did  nothing  but  "howl  and  roar" 
over  them, 


THE  INDIAN  KEY  85 

Still,  Roger  Williams,  always  just,  took 
care  to  record  the  good  points  of  the  natives 
as  well  as  their  failings.  This  was  unlike 
many  Englishmen  of  his  time,  who  looked 
down  upon  the  savages  as  little  better  than 
animals.  For  one  thing,  hospitality  was  a 
common  virtue  among  them.  Had  it  not 
been  so,  Roger  Williams  could  never  have 
found  for  his  book  such  a  list  of  friendly 
expressions  as  "Warm  you,"  "Sit  by  the 
fire,"  "Come  hither,  friend,"  "Come  in,"  "I 
thank  you,"  "I  thank  you  for  your  kind 
remembrance,"  and  "I  thank  you  for  your 
love." 

"The  courteous  pagan  shall  condemn 
Uncourteous  Englishmen, 
Who  live  hke  foxes,  bears  and  wolves. 
Or  lion  in  his  den. 

"  Let  none  sing  blessings  to  their  souls, 
For  that  they  courteous  are : 
The  wild  barbarians  with  no  more 
Than  nature,  go  so  far. 

*'  If  Nature's  sons  both  wild  and  tame. 
Humane  and  courteous  be. 
How  ill  becomes  it  sons  of  God 
To  want  humanity! " 


86  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

Again,  Roger  Williams  tells  us,  "If  any- 
stranger  come  in,  they  presently  give  him 
to  eat  of  what  they  have ;  many  a  time,  and 
at  all  times  of  the  night  (as  I  have  fallen 
in  travel  upon  their  houses)  when  nothing 
hath  been  ready,  have  themselves  and  their 
wives  risen  to  prepare  me  some  refreshing. 
In  summer  time  I  have  known  them  lie 
abroad  often  themselves,  to  make  room  for 
strangers,  English  or  others." 

"I  have  known  them  leave  their  house  and  mat 
To  lodge  a  friend  or  stranger, 
When  Jews  and  Christians  off  have  sent 
Christ  Jesus  to  the  manger." 

Family  affection  and  loyalty  were  strong 
in  the  Indian,  while  drunkenness  was  an  al- 
most unknown  vice.  As  for  such  crimes  as 
robbery  and  murder,  Roger  Williams  says 
that  the  red  men  have  as  good,  if  not  a  bet- 
ter, record  than  their  white  neighbors.  In 
war,  too,  the  example  set  by  the  English 
was  hardly  what  we  would  expect  from  a 
superior  race: 

*'  The  Indians  count  of  men  as  dogs, 
Jt  is  ^o  wonder  th^ij: 


THE  INDIAN  KEY  87 

They  tear  out  one  another's  throats! 
But  now  that  Enghshmen, 

"That  boast  themselves  God's  children  and 
Members  of  Christ  to  be, 
That  they  should  thus  break  out  in  flames, 
Sure  'tis  a  mystery  1 " 

Roger  Williams  gave  the  natives  credit, 
too,  for  being  punctual.  "They  are  punc- 
tual in  their  promises  of  keeping  time;  and 
sometimes  have  charged  me  with  a  lie  for 
not  punctually  keeping  time,  though 
hindered." 

The  Indians  were  exceedingly  fond  of 
news.  So  eager  were  they  to  learn  what  was 
going  on  around  them  that  if  any  stranger 
was  able  to  satisfy  their  curiosity  in  their 
own  language,  they  called  him  a  god. 
Forming  a  circle  about  the  news-bringer 
and  silently  puffing  at  their  pipes,  they 
would  listen  with  deep  attention  to  what  he 
had  to  say. 

Being  children  of  nature  and  living 
mostly  in  the  open,  they  were  far  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  outdoor  world  than  were 
their  white  neighbors.  Their  five  senses 
were  trained  to  a  wonderful  1  degree  ancj 


88  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

they  were  intimately  familiar  with  the  sun 
and  moon,  the  winds  and  weather. 

"  The  very  Indian  boys  can  give 
To  many  stars  their  name, 
And  know  their  course  and  therein  do 
Excel  the  Enghsh  tame." 

A  good  description  of  the  Indian  home  is 
furnished  by  Roger  Williams.  It  consisted 
of  long  poles  covered  and  lined  with  mats. 
Those  on  the  inside  were  embroidered  by 
the  women  and  took  the  place  of  hangings. 
Mats  often  formed  doors,  too,  though  birch 
and  chestnut  bark  and  even  English  boards 
and  nails  were  sometimes  used  for  this  pur- 
pose. A  large  opening  in  the  middle  of  the 
house  served  as  a  chimney.  "Two  families 
will  live  comfortably  and  lovingly  in  a  little 
round  house  of  some  fourteen  or  sixteen  foot 


over." 


The  principal  occupations  of  the  Indian 
braves  were  hunting,  fishing,  trading,  and 
the  manufacture  of  canoes,  bows  and  ar- 
rows. They  raised  some  tobacco,  but  left 
the  planting  and  tending  of  other  crops 
wholly  to  their  women  folk.     Tobacco  was 


THE  INDIAN  KEY  89 

highly  valued  as  a  preventative  against 
toothache.  While  the  Indians  generally 
bore  torture  uncomplainingly,  a  jumping 
tooth  would  make  a  coward  of  the  bravest. 
Says  Roger  Williams,  "The  toothache  is  the 
only  pain  which  will  force  their  stout  hearts 
to  cry." 

Canoes  were  fashioned  from  pine,  oak  and 
chestnut  trees.  After  being  felled,  the  trees 
were  burned  and  hewed  into  shape.  A 
single  Indian  working  by  himself  in  the 
forest  could  finish  and  launch  his  boat  within 
ten  or  twelve  days.  Some  of  the  larger 
canoes  were  big  enough  to  hold  thirty  or 
forty  men.  That  they  were  not  always  the 
safest  craft  for  white  men  is  shown  by  Roger 
Williams'  story: 

"It  is  wonderful  to  see  how  they  will  ven- 
ture in  those  canoes,  and  how  (being  oft 
overset  as  I  have  myself  been  with  them) 
they  will  swim  a  mile,  yea,  two  or  more,  safe 
to  land.  I  having  been  necessitated  to  pass 
waters  divers  times  with  them,  it  hath 
pleased  God  to  make  them  many  times  the 
instruments  of  my  preservation:  and  when 
sometimes  in  great  danger  I  have  questioned 


90  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

safety,  they  have  said  to  me,  Tear  not,  if 
we  be  overset,  I  will  carry  you  safe  to 
land.'  " 

As  to  food,  parched  meal  seems  to  have 
been  their  main  article  of  diet,  mixed  with 
either  hot  or  cold  water.  A  little  basket  of 
meal  was  commonly  carried  on  the  back  or 
in  a  hollow  leather  girdle.  This  would  last 
for  three  or  four  days. 

There  was  also  natural  food  at  hand,  of 
which  the  Indians  made  good  use.  The 
strawberry  was  greatly  prized.  To  quote 
from  the  "Key": 

"This  berry  is  the  wonder  of  all  the  fruits 
growing  naturally  in  those  parts.  In  some 
parts  where  the  natives  have  planted,  I  have 
many  times  seen  as  many  as  would  fill  a 
good  ship  within  few  miles'  compass.  The 
Indians  bruise  them  in  a  mortar  and  mix 
them  with  meal  and  make  strawberry 
bread."  The  natives  were  also  very  fond  of 
a  dish  made  of  meal  and  dried  currants 
ground  to  a  powder  which  was  "as  sweet  to 
them  as  plum  or  spice  cake  to  the  English." 

Another  natural  source  of  food  was  the 
clam-beds,   for  which  New  England,  and 


THE  INDIAN  KEY  91 

Rhode  Island  especially,  has  always  been 
famous.  Listen  to  Roger  Williams'  de- 
scription of  the  clam: 

"This  is  a  sweet  kind  of  shell-fish,  which 
all  Indians  generally  over  the  country, 
winter  and  summer,  delight  in,  and  at  low 
water  the  women  dig  for  them.  This  fish 
and  the  natural  liquor  of  it  they  boil  and  it 
makes  their  broth  and  their  bread  seasonable 
and  savory,  instead  of  salt." 

The  Indian  wampum,  made  from  shells 
found  along  the  shores  of  New  England, 
took  the  place  of  money.  Six  small  white 
beads,  or  three  black  ones,  were  equal  to  one 
English  penny. 

These  glimpses  into  the  Indian  "Key" 
give  us  a  little  idea  of  Roger  Williams' 
friends  among  the  Narragansetts  and  other 
tribes.  Here  and  there  in  the  book  are 
hints  of  his  kindly  dealings  with  these 
savages.  One  story  tells  how  he  gladly 
went  two  miles  out  of  his  way  to  visit 
a  Connecticut  Indian  on  his  death- 
bed. The  dying  brave  told  Roger  Wil- 
liams he  had  never  forgotten  the  words 
in  which  he  had  preached  the  religion  of  the 


92  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

white  men,  then  added  pitifully,  "Me  so  big 
naughty  heart,  me  heart  all  one  stone!" 

In  another  place,  Roger  Williams  re- 
ferred to  Canonicus,  sachem  of  the  Nar- 
ragansetts  and  his  steadfast  friend,  as 
"a  wise  and  peaceable  prince."  He  tells 
us  how  he  had  hard  work  to  overcome 
Canonicus'  suspicions  of  the  English.  To 
show  he  had  cause  to  doubt  the  word  of 
the  whites,  the  Indian  chief  picked  up  a 
stick  and  broke  it  in  ten  pieces — one  piece 
for  each  time  the  English  had  been  un- 
trustworthy. It  is  not  necessary  to  add 
that  Roger  Williams  did  his  best  to  so  im- 
prove conditions  that  the  Indians  could  put 
greater  trust  in  the  colonists. 

The  printer  who  published  the  "Key  into 
the  Language  of  America"  was  Gregoiy 
Dexter.  He  early  emigrated  to  Providence 
and  became  a  leading  citizen  of  the  little 
colony  and  also  remained  a  "dear  and  faith- 
ful friend"  of  Roger  Williams. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

IN  QUEST  OF  THE  CHARTER 

There  was  no  doubt  about  it.  The  little 
settlement  of  Providence  was  in  disgrace — 
deep  disgrace.  Massachusetts  could  forgive 
neither  Roger  Williams  for  his  unheard-of 
opinions  nor  his  companions  who  helped  him 
found  the  colony  based  upon  such  dangerous 
principles. 

She  showed  her  displeasure  in  several 
ways.  First,  she  frowned  upon  all  residents 
of  Providence  who  came  within  her  borders. 
If  they  still  held  that  the  magistrates  were 
unjust  and  that  Roger  Williams  had  been 
persecuted,  they  were  politely  invited  to 
turn  back  home  and  threatened  with  im- 
prisonment should  they  repeat  the  offence. 
Another  effect  of  the  Bay  Colony's  severity 
was  loss  of  trade,  resulting  in  actual  hard- 
ship for  the  Providence  settlers.  As  sup- 
plies from  England  were  received  at  Boston, 
little  Providence  was  badly  handicapped  in 


94  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

securing  the  necessities  of  life.  She  must 
either  depend  upon  the  more  distant  port 
of  New  Amsterdam  or  go  without. 

As  for  Roger  Wilhams  himself,  Massa- 
chusetts obstinately  refused  to  let  him  touch 
her  territory  under  any  conditions.  It  is 
hard  to  understand  such  a  spirit  of  narrow- 
ness and  ingratitude  after  the  noble  part  he 
had  played  in  the  Pequot  War.  Still  he 
continued  to  help  Massachusetts  on  any  and 
every  occasion  when  his  knowledge  of  the 
Indians  and  their  language  could  be  of 
service.  They,  as  repeatedly,  kept  on  ac- 
cepting his  kindnesses  without,  however, 
annulling  his  decree  of  banishment.  The 
following  incident  shows  this  in  striking 
fashion : 

At  one  time  the  Massachusetts  people  be- 
came suspicious  of  Miantonomo,  thinking 
that  he  had  entered  into  a  league  with  the 
Mohawks  against  them.  Thereupon,  they 
summoned  him  to  Boston  to  give  an  account 
of  himself.  The  Narragansett  sachem  was 
perfectly  willing  to  go — on  one  condition. 
This  was  that  Roger  Williams  might  be  his 
companion.     Well  did  the  shrewd  savage 


IN  QUEBT  OF  THE  CHARTER         95 

know  that  if  his  trusted  friend  had  a  part  in 
the  proceedings,  right  and  justice  would 
prevail.  Such  would  have  been  the  case,  but 
Roger  Williams  was  not  given  a  chance  to 
say  a  word  for  either  side.  He  was  under 
sentence  of  banishment.  How,  then,  could 
he  be  allowed  to  accompany  Miantonomo? 
The  proposed  meeting  failed  to  take  place. 

Whenever  a  disturbance  arose  in  Roger 
Williams'  colony,  Massachusetts  was  only 
too  ready  to  cry  out  triumphantly,  "I  told 
you  so!  This  absurd  theory  of  the  separa- 
tion of  church  and  state  is  not  working  out 
any  better  than  we  thought  it  would!"  John 
Winthrop  solemnly  recorded  in  his  Journal, 
"At  Providence,  also,  the  devil  was  not 
idle."  What  Roger  Williams'  critics  were 
too  short-sighted  to  see  was  that  the  trouble 
lay,  not  with  his  principles,  which  were  sane 
and  sound,  but  with  his  companions'  misun- 
derstanding of  them.  The  Apostle  of  Soul 
Liberty  was  far  ahead  of  the  age  in  which  he 
lived. 

The  time  came  when  this  attitude  of 
Massachusetts  threatened  Providence  with 
very  real  dangers.    We  are  sorry  to  say  that 


96  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

not  all  the  trouble  in  the  infant  colony  came 
from  without,  however.  A  few  settlers  at 
Pawtuxet,  near  Providence,  though  occupy- 
ing land  over  which  Massachusetts  had  no 
claim,  placed  themselves  under  her  protec- 
tion. It  was  the  very  opportunity  the  Bay 
Colony  had  been  seeking  to  extend  her 
sway.  Providence,  having  no  government, 
had  no  right  to  exist,  she  argued.  Frankly 
she  acknowledged  that  Pawtuxet  was  worth 
taking  over.  Was  it  wise  to  neglect  any 
chance  that  would  serve  as  a  wedge  to 
further  extension  of  territory? 

John  Winthrop  himself  had  the  honesty 
to  reveal  Massachusetts'  real  motives  back 
of  her  protection  of  the  Pawtuxet  malcon- 
tents : 

"This  we  did  partly  to  draw  in  the  rest  in 
those  parts,  either  under  ourselves  or  Plym- 
outh, who  now  lived  under  no  government, 
but  grew  very  offensive,  and  the  place  was 
likely  to  be  of  use  to  us,  especially  if  we 
should  have  occasion  of  sending  out  against 
any  Indians  of  Narragansett  and  likewise 
for  an  outlet  into  the  Narragansett  Bay, 
and  seeing  it  came  without  our  seeking,  and 


IN  QUEST  OF  THE  CHARTER         97 

would  be  no  charge  to  us,  we  thought  it  not 
wisdom  to  let  it  slip." 

For  a  while,  the  outlook  was  most  discour- 
aging for  the  struggling  settlement  at  the 
head  of  Narragansett  Bay.  Things  went 
from  bad  to  worse.  The  climax  was  reached 
when,  in  the  spring  of  1643,  Massachusetts, 
Plymouth,  Comiecticut  and  New  Haven 
joined  to  form  "The  United  Colonies  of 
New  England."  Providence  and  Aquidneck 
were  left  out.  The  chief  purpose  of  the 
federation  was  mutual  protection  against 
the  natives.  The  Pequot  War,  while  it  had 
broken  the  power  of  one  dreaded  tribe,  had 
not  settled  all  the  Indian  troubles  of  New 
'England.  Every  now  and  then  rumors  of 
new  dangers  spread  from  settlement  to  set- 
tlement. As  in  former  years,  a  general  mas- 
sacre of  white  settlers  was  feared.  There 
was  now  a  likelihood  that  such  an  attempt 
might  be  more  successful  than  before,  for 
the  Indians  had  been  receiving  firearms 
from  English  traders. 

The  league  was  based,  then,  upon  the 
principle  that  in  imion  there  is  strength. 
Two  commissioners  from  each  colony  (both 


98  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

of  whom  must  be  church  members)  were 
elected  to  meet  once  a  year  to  discuss  the 
questions  of  war  and  peace  that  affected 
the  general  welfare  of  New  England.  The 
Narragansett  Bay  settlements  would  have 
been  glad  to  send  their  representatives,  too, 
but  were  not  allowed  to  do  so.  At  first  the 
New  England  federation  claimed  it  was  be- 
cause Providence  had  no  charter.  This 
could  not  have  been  the  real  reason,  for 
when  this  obstacle  ceased  to  exist,  the  colony 
was  still  refused  admission. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  it  was  thus  placed 
in  an  extremely  dangerous  position.  It  was 
isolated,  could  hope  for  no  co-operation 
from  its  neighbor  colonies  and  was  in  con- 
stant dread  of  Indian  outbreaks.  What 
were  the  little  frozen-out  settlements  to  do? 
In  some  way  they  must  make  a  place  for 
themselves  in  this  unfriendly  New  England, 
and  that  speedily.  They  must,  in  some  way, 
make  their  neighbors  respect  them — yes, 
and  keep  their  hands  off  of  them.  Their 
very  existence  was  imperiled. 

There  was  only  one  course  open.  Acting 
on  the  same  principle  as  their  more  for- 


IN  QUEST  OF  THE  CHARTER         99 

tunate  neighbors,  they  decided  to  unite  and 
to  make  that  union  firm  and  lasting  by 
appeahng  to  England  for  a  charter.  The 
man  best  suited  to  undertake  this  delicate 
mission  was,  of  course,  Roger  Williams,  and 
he  was  appointed  to  visit  the  mother-country 
for  this  purpose. 

At  the  time  he  sailed  (June,  1643),  the 
principal  Narragansett  Bay  settlements 
were  Providence,  those  on  the  island  of 
Aquidneck — Portsmouth  and  Newport — 
and  the  infant  settlement  of  Warwick. 
During  the  seven  years  of  its  existence, 
Providence  had  continued  to  stand  boldly 
for  religious  freedom.  Aquidneck,  too, 
while  entirely  separate  from  her  sister 
colony,  had  been  liberal  from  the  beginning, 
as  is  shown  by  her  court  record  of  1641, 
"that  liberty  of  conscience  in  point  of 
doctrine  is  perpetuated." 

Roger  Williams  would  have  preferred  to 
engage  passage  from  Boston,  but  once  more 
the  Massachusetts  authorities  refused  to  let 
him  enter  their  territory.  He  therefore  de- 
cided to  embark  from  New  Amsterdam. 
Many  persons  in  that  Dutch  settlement  had 


100  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

reason  to  be  thankful  for  the  happy  provi- 
dence that  sent  him  their  way.  A  fierce  In- 
dian uprising  was  in  progress,  due  largely 
to  the  ill-treatment  of  the  savages  by  the 
whites.  Roger  Williams'  fame  must  have 
gone  before  him,  for  the  settlers  pleaded 
with  him  to  save  them.  With  his  usual  gra- 
cious willingness,  he  became  peace-maker 
and  with  his  customary  success.  Unhap- 
pily, many  frightful  tragedies  had  already 
occurred.  Among  these  was  the  murder  of 
Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson  and  members  of  her 
family  who  had  moved  from  Aquidneck  to 
the  Dutch  colony. 

The  long,  uncertain  voyage  that  lay 
ahead  of  Roger  Williams  was  most  unlike 
the  rapid  crossings  made  in  our  modem 
luxurious  ocean  steamers  that  can  calculate 
almost  to  an  hour  the  length  of  the  journey. 
Heavy  seas,  storms,  contrary  winds  all  had 
to  be  taken  into  account.  Realizing  the 
delay  that  might  thus  be  caused,  our  traveler 
used  his  leisure  to  put  together  the  Indian 
"Key,"  as  we  have  seen. 

It  was  a  very  different  England  which 
Roger  Williams  found  in  1643  from  that 


IN  QUEST  OF  THE  CHARTER        101 

which  he  had  left  thirteen  years  before. 
Then  royalty  and  bishops  had  been  tri- 
umphant; now  the  king  was  a  fugitive  and 
the  Star  Chamber  a  thing  of  the  past.  The 
country  was  passing  through  a  dreadful 
civil  war.  Parliament  was  fighting  for  its 
rights,  long  trampled  upon,  and  it  was  a 
question  whether  that  body  or  the  king 
would  win  out  in  the  end.  The  struggle  was 
for  both  civil  and  religious  freedom.  Dis- 
turbed though  the  kingdom  was,  it  was  the 
very  best  occasion  for  Roger  Williams  to 
present  his  request.  Parliament  needed  all 
the  friends  it  could  get  on  both  sides  of  the 
water.  It  therefore  listened  with  attention 
to  what  he  had  to  say. 

Without  question  Roger  Williams  num- 
bered among  his  friends  the  most  powerful 
men  of  England  at  this  time — Oliver  Crom- 
well, Sir  Henry  Vane,  the  former  governor 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  and  per- 
haps Milton.  They  greeted  the  pioneer 
from  over-seas  with  hearty  welcome.  Their 
warm  friendship  must  have  meant  much  to 
the  outcast  from  Massachusetts.  But  his 
patient  heart  must  have  been  filled  with  a 


102  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

still  greater  joy  when  a  commission  ap- 
pointed by  Parliament  granted  his  colony 
the  much-desired  charter.  Massachusetts' 
cold  disapproval  might  continue,  but  the 
Narragansett  settlements  were  on  their  feet 
at  last!  They  had  a  future.  Their  star, 
slow  in  rising,  was  now  above  the  horizon. 

During  his  stay  in  London,  Roger  Wil- 
liams attended  to  other  matters  besides  the 
procuring  of  the  charter.  Often  his  own 
personal  concerns  were  pushed  aside  for  the 
sake  of  others.  The  poor  of  the  city  were 
enduring  great  suffering  due  to  a  lack  of 
coal,  for  the  war  had  interfered  with  mining. 
Wood  was  very  expensive.  Rofger  Wil- 
liams made  it  his  business  to  do  what  he 
could  to  obtain  fuel  and  so  lessen  the 
distress  around  him. 

In  addition,  he  made  use  of  every  spare 
moment  to  write  a  great  work  on  toleration 
bearing  the  rather  startling  title  of  "The 
Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution,"  which  was 
put  together  "in  variety  of  strange  houses, 
sometimes  in  the  fields,  in  the  midst  of 
travel."  It  was  in  answer  to  a  letter  of  his 
old  antagonist,  John  Cotton.  Going  back  a 


IN  QUEST  OF  THE  CHARTER        103 

step  further,  this  letter  had  been  called  forth 
by  a  pamphlet  on  persecution  composed  by 
a  prisoner  of  Newgate.  Being  denied 
writing  materials,  he  had  substituted  milk 
for  ink,  and  for  paper,  had  used  the  wrap- 
pings of  the  milk  bottles  brought  him.  Such 
writings,  he  knew,  would,  upon  the  applica- 
tion of  heat,  become  legible.  To  "the  argu- 
ments against  persecution  in  milk/'  Roger 
Williams  now  wrote  "the  answer  in  blood." 
He  was  on  familiar  ground,  and  with  clear 
logic,  good  sense  and  strong  English,  he 
shaped  his  ideas  on  religious  liberty.  Such 
a  book  had  never  before  been  published. 
Truth  and  Peace  are  represented  as  dis- 
cussing this  all-important  subject. 

"In  what  dark  corner  of  the  world,  sweet 
Peace,"  begins  Truth,  "are  we  two  met? 
How  hath  the  present  evil  world  banished 
me  from  all  the  coasts  and  quarters  of  it? 
And  how  hath  the  righteous  God  in  judg- 
ment taken  thee  from  the  earth?" 

"  'Tis  lamentably  true,  blessed  Truth," 
answers  Peace,  "the  foundations  of  the 
world  have  long  been  out  of  course.  .  .  . 
With  what  a  wearied,  tired  wing  have  I 


104  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

flown  over  nations,  kingdoms,  cities,  towns, 
to  find  out  precious  Truth." 

"The  hke  inquiries,"  says  Truth,  "in  my 
flights  and  travels  have  I  made  for  Peace, 
and  still  am  told  she  hath  left  the  earth  and 
fled  to  Heaven." 

"Dear  Truth,"  then  exclaims  Peace, 
"what  is  the  earth  but  a  dungeon  of 
darkness  where  Truth  is  not?" 

In  less  fanciful  language,  arguments  are 
given  to  show  that  neither  laws  nor  civil 
magistrates  should  have  authority  over  a 
man's  soul.  Roger  Williams  did  not  mean 
any  disrespect  to  his  old  friend,  John  Cot- 
ton, by  thus  openly  taking  opposite  sides 
with  him.  This  he  explained  years  after- 
wards in  a  courteous  letter  to  Cotton's  son. 
He  was  too  tender-hearted  to  offend  even  his 
enemies.  Besides,  public  controversies  were 
very  popular  in  Roger  Williams'  day. 

The  book  was  dedicated  to  Parliament, 
but,  unfortunately,  the  House  of  Commons 
was  so  far  from  comprehending  and  appre- 
ciating its  worth,  that  it  rather  childishly 
ordered  that  it  be  burnt.    As  if  in  such  sim- 


IN  QUEST  OF  THE  CHARTER        105 

pie  fashion  truth  could  be  wiped  from  the 
earth! 

The  charter  obtained  by  Roger  Williams 
provided  that  "Providence  Plantations  in 
the  Narragansett  Bay  in  New  England" 
should  be  given  "full  power  and  authority 
to  rule  themselves  and  such  others  as  shall 
hereafter  inhabit  within  any  part  of  the  said 
tract  of  land,  by  such  a  form  of  civil  gov- 
ernment as  by  voluntary  consent  of  all,  or 
the  greater  part  of  them,  they  shall  find 
most  suitable  to  their  estate  and  condition, 
provided  that  the  said  laws,  constitutions 
and  punishments  for  the  civil  government 
of  the  said  plantations  be  conformable  to 
the  laws  of  England,  as  far  as  the  nature 
and  constitution  of  the  place  will  admit." 
It  was  a  most  liberal  document,  without 
a  single  word  about  restricting  liberty  in 
religious  matters. 

The  obtaining  of  this  charter  meant  an 
outlay  in  actual  money  of  one  hundred 
pounds,  or  five  hundred  dollars.  Roger 
Williams  had  generously  disposed  of  some 
of  his  land  in  order  to  raise  ready  money  to 
carry  through  the  project.     This  debt  was 


106  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

not  collected  without  considerable  trouble 
and  delay.  The  colonists,  having  secured 
their  object,  did  not  seem  over-anxious  to 
pay  the  bill. 

The  question  suggests  itself:  How  had 
Roger  Williams  been  able  to  make  such  a 
complete  success  of  his  mission  in  England? 
There  were  several  reasons — among  them, 
the  desire  of  Parliament  to  make  and  keep 
friends  in  New  England,  as  has  been  men- 
tioned. But  listen.  In  a  letter  sent  by 
Roger  Williams  from  leading  noblemen  and 
members  of  Parliament  to  Massachusetts, 
we  find  these  words:  "As  also  of  his  great 
industry  and  travels  in  his  printed  Indian 
labors  in  your  parts  (the  like  whereof  we 
have  not  seen  extant  from  any  part  of 
America)  and  in  which  respect  it  hath 
pleased  both  Houses  of  Parliament  to  grant 
unto  him,  and  friends  with  him,  a  free  and 
absolute  charter  of  civil  government  for 
those  parts  of  his  abode."  The  writers  of 
the  letter  did  not  hesitate  to  use  very  plain 
language  in  expressing  their  disapproval  of 
the  lack  of  harmony  and  neighborliness  that 
had  marked  the  dealings  between  Massa- 


IN  QUEST  OF  THE  CHARTER       107 

chusetts  and  Roger  Williams.  The  missive 
gained  him  the  privilege  of  landing  in  Bos- 
ton on  his  return  to  America  in  the  autumn 
of  the  year  1644.  There  is  nothing  to  show, 
however,  that  the  colony  softened  her  heart 
toward  him. 

The  people  of  Providence,  on  the  other 
hand,  heard  of  the  coming  of  their  leader 
and  prepared  for  him  a  truly  royal  welcome. 
When  he  landed  on  the  banks  of  the  See- 
konk,  where,  not  many  years  before,  nobody 
had  taken  any  interest  in  his  doings  except 
possibly  friendly  Indians,  now  he  was  met 
by  a  body  of  his  townsmen  who  had  turned 
out  in  fourteen  canoes  to  greet  him. 
Happy  in  the  safe  return  of  their  friend  and 
neighbor,  and  rejoiced  to  think  he  had  come 
back  with  the  precious  charter,  they  escorted 
him,  with  hearty  expressions  of  joy,  across 
the  river  to  the  settlement  he  had  founded. 


CHAPTER   IX 

NARRAGANSETT  DAYS 

While  Roger  Williams  was  absent  in  Eng- 
land, an  event  occurred  at  home  which  must 
have  sorely  grieved  his  kindly  heart  when . 
he  heard  of  it.  This  was  the  death  of  his 
faithful  friend  and  ally,  the  sachem  Mian- 
tonomo.  Their  friendship,  as  well  as  that 
between  Roger  Williams  and  Miantonomo's 
uncle,  Canonicus,  forms  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting chapters  in  the  life  of  our  hero. 
Brave,  dignified,  upright,  true,  Miantonomo 
could  give  many  a  church  elder  of  his  time 
a  lesson  in  honor  and  sincerity.  He 
deserved  a  far  better  fate  at  their  hands 
than  he  received. 

Ever  since  the  Pequot  War,  there  had 
been  trouble  between  the  Mohegans  and 
the  Narragansetts.  Uncas,  the  powerful 
sachem  of  the  former  tribe,  was  Mianto- 
nomo's  deadly  rival.  When,  therefore,  war 
broke  out  between  him  and  an  ally  of  Mian- 


NARRAGANSETT  DAYS  109 

tonomo,  the  Narragansett  sachem  took  part 
in  the  struggle.  With  a  force  of  about  a 
thousand  men,  which  greatly  outnumbered 
the  Connecticut  Indians,  he  took  Uncas 
completely  by  surprise.  Unhappily,  Mian- 
tonomo  was  hindered  by  a  heavy  armor  that 
had  been  loaned  him  and  this,  together  with 
the  sudden  fury  of  Uncas'  assault,  cost  him 
the  day.  He  was  taken  captive  to  Hart- 
ford, after  proudly  refusing  to  plead  for  his 
life. 

When  the  commissioners  of  the  United 
Colonies  next  met,  his  case  was  put  in  their 
hands.  What  should  be  done  with  the 
silent,  haughty  prisoner?  Should  he  be 
condemned  to  death  or  receive  a  lighter 
punishment'  or — best  of  all — be  set  free? 
Whatever  Miantonomo's  faults,  he  had  al- 
ways kept  faith  with  his  white  allies  and, 
remembering  his  treaty  at  the  time  of  the 
Pequot  War,  had  even  asked  permission  of 
Massachusetts  before  attacking  Uncas. 
The  United  Colonies  hesitated.  At  length 
they  shifted  the  responsibility  to  certain 
prominent  ministers  of  the  gospel.  Surely 
they  would  be  lenient.     Without  question 


110  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

they  would  grant  him  life  and  freedom. 
Death!  With  one  voice  they  pronomiced 
the  awful  sentence. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  the  savage 
joy  with  which  Uncas  received  his  hated  foe 
back  again.  As  Miantonomo  was  led  forth 
from  Hartford,  one  of  Uncas'  men  stole  up 
behind  him  and  felled  him  to  the  ground 
with  a  single  blow  of  a  hatchet.  This  heart- 
less murder — for  it  can  be  called  nothing 
less — will  always  remain  a  dark  blot  on  the 
history  of  early  New  England.  If  only 
Roger  Williams  had  been  at  home!  No 
doubt  the  gloomy  sachem  said  it  to  himself 
more  than  once  with  childlike  yearning. 
To-day,  nearly  three  hundred  years  after 
the  tragedy,  we  echo  sadly,  "If  only  Roger 
Williams  had  been  at  homel" 

The  Narragansetts  did  not  soon  overlook 
the  cruel  death  of  their  favorite  chief.  They 
meditated  revenge — deep,  thorough  re- 
venge. They  would  have  the  head  of  Uncas, 
no  matter  what  Massachusetts  and  the  other 
colonies  might  say.  Such  was  the  state  of 
affairs  when  Roger  Williams  returned  from 
England.       The     Narragansetts     actually 


NARRAGANSETT  DAYS  111 

commenced  hostilities  against  the  Mohegans 
and  threatened  to  carry  the  war  against  the 
white  colonists  as  well,  except  those  of 
Providence  and  Rhode  Island,  as  the  island 
of  Aquidneck  was  now  called. 

Roger  Williams  lost  no  time  in  doing  his 
utmost  to  quench  "the  flames  of  war  raging 
next  door"  to  him.  He  sent  word  of  the 
plans  of  the  Indians  to  a  meeting  of  the 
commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  held 
at  Boston.  In  consequence  of  this,  Massa- 
chusetts decided  to  take  up  arms  against 
the  revengeful  Narragansetts.  Their 
sachem,  Pessicus,  Miantonomo's  brother, 
then  lost  some  of  his  former  bravery.  He, 
like  Massachusetts,  depended  upon  Roger 
Williams  to  get  him  out  of  his  difficulties. 
He  had  the  same  unquestioning  confidence 
in  the  friend  of  his  tribe  as  had  Miantonomo 
before  him.  The  result  of  the  whole  busi- 
ness was  that  peace  was  arranged  and  the 
Narragansetts  pledged  Massachusetts  two 
thousand  fathom  of  wampum.  A  treaty 
was  concluded  which  patched  up  the  differ- 
ences between  the  two  Indian  tribes  and 
perhaps   prevented,   for  a  second  time,   a 


112  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

widespread  massacre  of  the  whites.  The 
credit  was  entirely  due  to  Roger  Williams. 

But  to  return  to  the  personal  affairs  of 
the  great  peace-maker.  We  must  not  sup- 
pose that  all  this  time  he  was  on  the  road 
to  riches.  At  no  time  in  his  career  does  he 
seem  to  have  had  an  abundance  of  worldly 
goods.  He  was  obliged  to  work  in  the  open, 
at  hard  manual  labor,  to  earn  a  living  for 
himself  and  those  dependent  on  him.  Now, 
upon  his  return  from  England,  he  found 
himself  poorer  than  ever.  His  family  num- 
bered six  children  and  it  was  a  big  problem 
to  clothe  and  feed  them  properly.  Their 
needs  probably  determined  his  next  step — 
his  removal  from  Providence  to  Cawcawm- 
quissick  or  Narragansett,  some  twenty  miles 
down  the  Bay,  where  he  established  a 
trading-post. 

The  location  had  its  advantages.  It  was 
convenient  for  hunters  and  accessible  to 
Newport,  at  which  port  furs  could  be 
shipped  to  England  and  needed  supplies  be 
received  in  return.  Here,  in  the  heart  of  the 
Narragansett  country,  Roger  Williams 
passed  six  busy  years  of  his  life,  his  busi- 


NARRAGANSETT  DAYS  113 

ness  yielding  hiiii  one  hundred  pounds 
annually.  He  planted  and  harvested  his 
crops,  continued  to  serve  as  mediator  be- 
tween the  natives  and  the  colonists,  and  to 
take  an  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
colony. 

He  found  at  Narragansett  a  most  con- 
genial neighbor  in  the  person  of  Richard 
Smith,  a  prosperous  trader  and  the  owner 
of  a  large  estate.  A  fugitive  from  English 
persecution,  he  had  resided  for  a  time  in 
Plymouth  territory,  and  then,  for  the  sake 
of  a  still  more  liberal  atmosphere,  moved  to 
the  Narragansett  Bay  region.  His  was  the 
first  English  house  in  that  section,  built  a 
few  years  after  the  settlement  of  Provi- 
dence. Mrs.  Smith  was  the  soul  of  courtesy 
and  hospitality  and  the  Williams  family 
was  fortunate  in  having  her  and  her  good 
husband  within  neighborly  distance. 

That  Roger  Williams,  too,  was  the  best 
of  neighbors,  we  have  abundant  proof.  No 
kindly  service  was  too  small  for  him  to 
undertake  if  he  could  thereby  help  those 
about  him,  whether  English  or  Indian. 
Now  he  busied  himself  trying  to  find  the 


114  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

stray  cattle  of  a  friend,  again  he  gave  his 
house  over  to  Massachusetts  soldiers  who 
had  come  to  collect  the  wampum  debt  from 
the  Narragansetts.  The  savages  were  con- 
tinually making  excuses  to  Roger  Williams 
for  their  delay  in  settling  the  heavy  account. 
Many  of  these  were  genuine  enough,  no 
doubt.  He  listened  to  the  grievances  of 
both  sides  and,  as  usual,  poured  oil  on  the 
troubled  waters. 

To  the  Narragansetts,  he  was  friend, 
peace-maker,  adviser,  physician.  They 
served  in  his  household,  for  the  early  records 
of  the  province  show  that  he  was  granted 
"leave  to  suffer  a  native,  his  hired  household 
servant,  to  kill  fowl  for  him  in  his  piece  at 
Narragansett  about  his  house."  Their  bod- 
ily ailments  were  ever  a  source  of  care 
and  anxiety  to  him.  Though  Providence 
Plantations  was  a  temperate  colony,  yet 
Roger  Williams  was  allowed  to  administer 
"a  little  wine  or  strong  water"  to  the  red 
men  in  their  illnesses.  "I  might  have  gained 
thousands  by  that  trade,"  he  once  said,  "but 
God  hath  graciously  given  me  rather  to 
choose  a  dry  morsel."     When  in  need  of 


NARRAGANSETT  DAYS  115 

greater  medical  skill  than  his  own,  he  wrote 
his  friend,  John  Winthrop  the  younger,  of 
Connecticut,  for  medicine  and  a  "drawing 
plaster,"  adding  generously,  "if  the  charge 
rise  to  one  or  two  crowns,  I  shall  thankfully 
send  it." 

The  lack  of  good  physicians  was  still 
sorely  felt  in  the  colony.  When  the  second 
daughter  of  Roger  Williams  became  ill,  he 
again  asked  Mr.  Winthrop's  advice — ^this 
time,  as  to  the  best  doctor  in  Massachusetts. 
As  late  as  1660,  however,  Roger  Williams 
resorted  to  simple  remedies — of  necessity, 
very  likely — instead  of  consulting  a  doctor. 
When  his  son  Joseph  "was  troubled  with  a 
spice  of  an  epilepsy,"  he  wrote,  "We  used 
some  remedies,  but  it  hath  pleased  God,  by 
his  taking  of  tobacco,  perfectly,  as  we  hope, 
to  cure  him." 

Correspondence  and  neighborly  inter- 
change of  courtesies  were  kept  up  for  years 
between  the  Williams  family  and  that  of 
John  Winthrop,  Jr.  The  affection  and 
kindliness  of  the  former  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts for  his  banished  friend  descended 
to  his  son.    "Your  loving  lines  in  this  cold, 


116  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

dead  season" — thus  began  one  of  Roger 
Williams'  letters  to  him — "were  as  a  cup  of 
your  Connecticut  cider."  Once  Mrs.  Wil- 
liams sent  Mrs.  Winthrop  a  couple  of 
papers  of  pins,  as  this  simple  necessity  ap- 
peared to  be  scarce  in  Connecticut.  Her 
husband  added  the  suggestion  that  if  Mrs. 
Winthrop  herself  did  not  need  them,  they 
might  "pleasure  a  neighbor."  Writing 
paper  seemed  to  be  as  scarce  in  Providence 
as  pins  were  in  Connecticut.  One  letter  of 
Roger  Williams  was  written  on  the  blank 
side  of  an  envelope  addressed  to  himself  by 
Winthrop.  He  crossed  out  his  own  name 
and  wrote  that  of  his  correspondent  in 
blacker  ink. 

The  monotony  and  hard  work  of  the  Nar- 
ragansett  existence  were  enlivened  now  and 
then  by  the  loan  of  a  book.  In  this  way, 
Roger  Williams  kept  in  touch  with  the  lat- 
est thought  in  England.  He  eagerly  read 
all  volumes  that  came  his  way  bearing 
upon  religious  subjects,  but  at  one  time  he 
expressed  an  earnest  desire  for  a  geography. 
In  turn,  he  supplied  his  friends  with  books 
from  his  own  limited  library.    We  are  sorry 


NARRAGANSETT  DAYS  117 

to  say  they  were  not  always  returned 
promptly.  .  Thus  he  sent  urgent  word  to 
Connecticut  for  Winthrop  to  recover  one  of 
these  books  which  an  Englishman  of  Long 
Island  had  borrowed. 

During  Roger  Williams'  residence  at 
Narragansett,  the  aged  chieftain  Canonicus 
died.  Honorable  and  just  in  his  dealings 
with  the  colonists,  always  more  inclined 
toward  peace  than  war,  he  stands  out  in 
history  as  one  of  the  wisest  and  best  of  New 
England  Indians.  He  picked  out  Roger 
Williams  as  the  object  of  his  special  favor. 
Despite  extreme  age,  he  had  laid  out  the 
grounds  of  his  neighbor's  trading-house  with 
his  own  hands.  The  two  men  had  the  deep- 
est respect  and  love  for  each  other.  Near- 
ing  His  end,  the  Narragansett  chieftain  sent 
for  Roger  Williams.  He  had  a  dying  re- 
quest to  make — that  he  might  be  buried  in 
the  "cloth  of  free  gift"  that  was  one  of  many 
tokens  of  friendship  from  his  great  white 
friend.  "So  he  was,"  recorded  Roger  Wil- 
liams simply.  Thus  the  "prudent  and 
peaceable  prince"  was  laid  to  rest  with  his 
fathers. 


118  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

One  other  event  marked  Roger  Williams' 
sojourn  at  Narragansett.  A  day  came 
when  exciting  news  spread  like  wildfire 
throughout  the  colony.  Gold  had  been 
found — rich,  precious  gold — yes,  and  silver, 
too — on  the  island  of  Rhode  Island.  So  the 
word  went  round.  What  a  future  for  the 
poor,  struggling  little  colony!  Roger  Wil- 
liams, with  the  others,  believed  that  a  mine 
of  wealth  was  in  their  midst  and  wrote  in 
one  of  his  letters  that  the  ore  had  been  tested 
and  found  genuine.  The  arms  of  England 
and  of  the  Lord  High  Admiral  were  posted 
over  the  mine  and  nobody  allowed  to 
take  possession.  Unfortunately,  the  golden 
dream  soon  changed  to  drab  reality.  A 
more  careful  test  showed  that  what  was  be- 
lieved to  be  gold  was  not  gold  at  all.  The 
disappointed  dreamers,  sadder  but  wiser,  re- 
turned to  their  plows  to  earn  a  living  out  of 
the  soil  in  the  old  humdrum  but  dependable 
way. 

What  about  Roger  Williams'  charter 
money  all  this  time?  The  colony  had  voted 
him  the  hundred  pounds  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  his  trip  across  the  water,  but  he  had  not 


NARRAGANSETT  DAYS  119 

yet  collected  it  all.  After  patiently  waiting 
several  years,  he  gently  hinted  that  Prov- 
idence pay  her  share  in  goats! 

"I  have  here  (through  God's  providence) 
convenience  of  improving  some  goats;  my 
request  is,  therefore,  that  if  it  may  be  with- 
out much  trouble,  you  would  be  pleased  to 
order  the  payment  of  it  in  cattle  of  that 
kind." 

Let  us  hope  fhat  the  "cattle"  duly  reached 
Narragansett. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  CHABTER  ON  TRIAL 

Meanwhile,  what  of  the  charter  itself 
which  Roger  Williams  had  gained  at  the 
expense  of  so  much  time  and  trouble  ?  Had 
it  succeeded  in  uniting  the  struggling  set- 
tlements? Were  they  now  a  harmonious, 
happy  family?  Alas!  No  such  miracle  had 
occurred.  In  fact,  two  years  and  a  half 
passed  before  any  kind  of  union  was 
brought  about. 

Finally,  in  May,  1647,  representatives 
from  the  different  towns  met  at  Portsmouth. 
The  larger  part  of  the  colony,  however,  was 
present  at  this  first  General  Assembly. 
Those  persons  from  the  mainland  who  at- 
tended paddled  to  their  destination  in 
canoes.  In  those  days  the  water  trip  from 
Providence  to  Portsmouth  was  looked  upon 
as  quite  an  undertaking,  though  to-day  a 
steamer  could  easily  make  the  same  journey 
in  less  than  two  hours.    The  delegates  from 


Canonicus  Bridge,  Roger  Williams  Park,  Providence,  appro- 
priately named  after  the  Narragansett  sachem  who  was  the 
steadfast  friend  of  Roger  Williams. 


The  Betsy  Williams  Cottage,  Roger  Williams  Park,  Providence. 
It  is  an  old-fashioned  red  dwelling,  well  covered  with  vines  in 
summer,  not  far  from  the  statue  of  Roger  Williams.  The 
cottage  is  appropriately  furnished  with  Colonial  relics. 


THE  CHARTER  ON  TRIAL  121 

Providence,  including  Roger  Williams  and 
his  brother  Robert,  were  bidden  Godspeed 
by  the  town  in  words  as  gravely  serious  as 
might  be  used  had  the  intended  voyage  been 
across  the  ocean : 

"We  commit  you  unto  the  protection  and 
direction  of  the  Almighty,  wishing  you  a 
comfortable  voyage,  a  happy  success,  and  a 
safe  return  unto  us  again." 

At  this  first  representative  meeting  of  the 
colony,  a  simple  form  of  government  was 
decided  upon.  It  was  agreed  that  the  af- 
fairs of  the  province  should  be  managed  by 
a  president,  four  assistants  and  six  commis- 
sioners from  each  town,  or  tweny-f our  in  all. 
Roger  Williams  was  not  chosen  first  presi- 
dent, as  we  might  suppose,  but  this  may 
have  been  because  he  declined  the  honor. 
Surely  the  good  and  faithful  man  deserved 
a  rest.  He  did,  however,  serve  twice  as 
an  assistant  and  once  as  deputy-president 
under  the  first  charter. 

The  colonial  body  declared  itself  in  favor 
of  "a  democratical  form  of  government" — 
a  truly  startling  novelty  for  the  seventeenth 
century.    Then  a  dear,  simple  code  of  laws 


122  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

was  drawn  up,  far  milder  and  more  just 
than  any  then  in  existence.  They  provided 
that  while  burglary  and  theft  were  punish- 
able crimes,  still  the  penalty  should  not  be 
too  extreme  for  poor  persons  who  stole  be- 
cause of  hunger.  Debtors  having  no  goods 
or  lands  with  which  to  settle  their  bills 
were  not  to  be  sent  to  prison  "to  lie  lan- 
guishing to  no  man's  advantage."  The 
destitute  and  infirm  were  to  be  provided 
for  in  all  the  towns.  No  person  was 
to  be  required  to  take  an  out-and-out 
oath,  his  solemn  word  or  testimony  be- 
ing considered  just  as  binding.  The  laws 
concluded  thus  quaintly:  "And  otherwise 
than  thus  what  is  herein  forbidden,  all  men 
may  walk  as  their  consciences  persuade 
them,  every  one  in  the  name  of  his  God. 
And  let  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  walk  in 
this  colony  without  molestation  in  the  name 
of  Jehovah,  their  God,  forever  and  ever." 

Just  how  primitive  was  the  life  of  these 
early  settlers  is  shown  in  that  section  of  the 
laws  touching  upon  archery.  It  also  gives 
a   glimpse   of  the   constant   danger  which 


THE  CHARTER  ON  TRIAL  123 

surrounded    the    pioneers    of    Providence 
Plantations. 

"Forasmuch,  as  we  are  cast  among  the 
archers,  and  know  not  how  soon  we  may  be 
deprived  of  powder  and  shot,  without  which 
our  guns  will  advantage  us  nothing;  to  the 
end  also  that  we  may  come  to  outshoot  these 
natives  in  their  own  bow;  Be  it  enacted  by 
the  authority  of  this  present  Assembly,  that 
that  statute  touching  archery  shall  be  re- 
vived and  propagated  throughout  the  whole 
colony;  and  that  every  person  from  the  age 
of  seventeen  years  to  the  age  of  seventy, 
that  is  not  lame,  debilitated  in  his  body,  or 
otherwise  exempted  by  the  colony,  shall 
have  a  bow  and  four  arrows,  and  shall  use 
and  exercise  shooting;  and  every  father 
having  children  shall  provide  for  every  man- 
child  from  the  age  of  seven  years,  till  he 
come  to  seventeen  years,  a  bow  and  two 
arrows  or  shafts  to  induce  them  and  to  bring 
them  up  to  shooting;  and  every  son,  servant, 
or  master,  thus  appointed  and  ordered  to 
have  a  bow  and  arrows,  that  shall  be  remiss 
and  negligent  in  the  observance  hereof  and 
shall  be  found  to  lack  a  bow  and  so  many 


124  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

arrows  for  the  space  of  a  month  together 
after  the  last  of  the  fourth  month,  commonly 
called  June,  shall  forfeit  three  shillings  and 
four  pence ;  the  father  shall  pay  for  the  son, 
the  master  for  the  servant,  and  deduct  it  out 
of  his  wages." 

At  this  first  assembly,  an  anchor  (to 
which  later  was  added  the  motto  "Hope") 
was  chosen  as  the  seal  of  the  province.  Ap- 
propriate emblem,  indeed!  Many  a  storm 
would  the  infant  colony  be  called  upon  to 
battle  with  before  being  grounded  firmly  in 
good  government.  Never  before  had  a 
group  of  people  greater  need  of  hope  and 
courage  than  those  who  were  trying  out 
their  "lively  experiment." 

A  law  was  passed,  too,  forbidding  the  sale 
of  firearms  to  the  Indians  under  penalty  of 
a  heavy  fine. 

Several  years  passed  and  still  Providence 
Plantations  failed  to  become  the  settled, 
united  colony  of  Roger  Williams'  hopes  and 
dreams.  It  was  a  union  in  name  only.  As  for 
the  position  of  the  founder  himself,  it  was 
as  if  he  were  the  head  of  an  unruly  school. 
The  four  disturbing  classes,  instead  of  act- 


THE  CHARTER  ON  TRIAL  125 

ing  together  for  the  good  of  the  school,  were 
more  intent  on  their  own  little  concerns  and 
differences.  The  people  of  Providence 
quarreled  among  themselves,  while  Prov- 
idence, Newport,  Portsmouth  and  Warwick 
quarreled  with  one  another. 

It  is  true  that  certain  inhabitants  of  Prov- 
idence made  an  agreement  that  for  the  com- 
mon good  they  would  forget  their  jealousies 
and  bickerings,  but,  unhappily,  the  very 
persons  who  signed  the  paper  were  the  ones 
who  had  no  need  of  such  a  pledge  to  begin 
with.  The  liberal,  brotherly  spirit  of  Roger 
Williams  was  plainly  evident  in  their  deter- 
mination to  let  "love  cover  their  differences 
in  the  grave  of  oblivion." 

At  last  matters  reached  a  crisis.  William 
Coddington  planned  to  detach  the  island  of 
Rhode  Island  and  the  neighboring  island  of 
Conanicut  from  the  rest  of  the  colony  and 
sailed  for  England  early  in  1649  to  obtain 
a  separate  charter.  And  this  even  though 
he  had  been  honored  by  being  elected  presi- 
dent of  the  province  and  owed  his  position  in 
the  colony  largely  to  Roger  Williams' 
kindness  and  helpfulness. 


126  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

It  looked  very  much  as  if  Roger  Wil- 
liams' work  would  have  to  be  done  all  over 
again,  especially  as  Coddington  returned  in 
two  years  with  the  new  charter  which  made 
him  governor  of  the  two  islands  in  the  Bay 
for  life.  Besides,  the  neighboring  colonies 
still  had  a  covetous  eye  on  their  sister  colony 
of  whom  they  had  always  disapproved. 
Massachusetts  still  claimed  Pawtuxet, 
Plymouth  declared  she  owned  the  Island  of 
Rhode  Island,  while  poor  Warwick  had 
been  tossed  back  and  forth  between  the  two 
very  much  like  a  baseball. 

Finally,  Providence  and  Warwick  had 
the  good  sense  to  unite  and  ask  Roger  Wil- 
liams to  go  to  England  a  second  time  to 
have  the  original  charter  confirmed.  Ports- 
mouth and  Newport,  with  equally  good 
sense,  urged  John  Clarke,  the  good  minister- 
physician  of  the  latter  town,  likewise  to 
appeal  to  the  mother  country  to  have  the 
Coddington  charter  annulled. 

Roger  Williams  had  to  be  urged  twice  to 
undertake  the  task.  The  care  of  his  sizable 
family  and  lack  of  money  probably  had 
much  to  do  with  his  first  refusal.    At  length, 


THE  CHARTER  ON  TRIAL  127 

however,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  his 
duty  to  his  fellow-colonists  was  of  more 
importance  than  his  own  private  affairs. 
The  two  towns  promised  to  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  the  trip  and  to  make  up  whatever 
was  still  owing  for  the  former  voyage. 

Even  so,  Roger  Williams  sold  his  trad- 
ing-post at  Narragansett  in  order  to  finance 
the  venture.  He  found  a  purchaser  in  his 
neighbor,  Richard  Smith,  who  paid  him 
fifty  pounds  in  ready  money  for  it.  There 
is  no  indication  that,  on  the  part  of 
the  seller,  this  was  an  attempt  to  drive  a 
sharp  bargain — far  from  it.  The  business 
must  have  been  worth  far  more  than  Roger 
Williams  realized  on  it,  even  though  it  was 
a  cash  transaction. 

There  was  one  thing  more  to  be  done — 
to  "humbly  pray  Massachusetts  that  he 
might  inoffensively  and  without  molestation 
pass  through  her  jurisdiction  as  a  stranger 
for  a  night."  The  request  was  grudgingly 
granted  and,  in  company  with  the  Reverend 
John  Clarke,  Roger  Williams  for  the  sec- 
ond time  set  his  face  toward  England,  in 
November,  1651. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE   SECOND   MISSION 

After  Roger  Williams  left  for  London,  the 
towns  of  Portsmouth  and  Newport  sub- 
mitted to  the  rule  of  Coddington,  while 
Providence  and  Warwick  united  and  con- 
tinued under  the  old  charter.  They  held 
their  regular  assemblies  as  usual,  passed 
laws,  and  acted,  in  general,  as  if  there  were 
no  split  at  all. 

Many  of  their  proceedings  are  of  little 
interest  to-day,  but  one  stands  out  from  the 
rest  and  deserves  more  than  passing  notice. 
The  law  restricting  slavery,  under  date  of 
May  18,  1652,  was  one  of  the  very  first  of 
its  kind,  not  alone  in  New  England,  but  in 
the  whole  world.  The  purchase  of  negroes 
was  "a  common  course  practiced  among 
Englishmen  to  that  end  they  may  have  them 
for  service  or  slaves  forever"  and  white  men 
were  also  held  in  similar  bondage.  Now 
while  the  idea  of  universal  freedom  was  far 


THE  SECOND  MISSION  129 

from  the  thoughts  of  mankind  in  Roger 
Williams'  day,  the  step  taken  by  his  little 
colony  was  a  big  stride  in  the  right  direction. 
It  provided  that  no  "black  mankind  or 
white"  should  be  made  to  serve  for  a  longer 
period  than  ten  years.  "And  that  man  that 
will  not  let  them  go  free,"  the  decree  went 
on,  "or  shall  sell  them  away  elsewhere,  to 
that  end  that  they  may  be  enslaved  to  others 
for  a  long  time,  he  or  they  shall  forfeit  to 
the  colony  forty  pounds." 

Though  Roger  Williams  was  hundreds 
of  miles  from  home  at  the  time  this  slavery 
act  was  passed,  it  clearly  shows  his  influence. 
He  was  always  the  friend  of  the  oppressed 
and  downtrodden.  It  is  not  likely  that 
many  offenders  were  found  after  the  law 
became  a  fact.  Two  hundred  dollars  meant 
too  heavy  a  fine  for  the  poor  colonist  of  that 
day  to  pay. 

The  England  of  Roger  Williams'  second 
visit  was  as  disturbed  as  the  England  of  his 
first  trip.  King  Charles  had  paid  a  heavy 
price  for  his  tyrannical  injustice — the  loss  of 
his  head — and  the  real  ruler  of  the  country 
was  Oliver  Cromwell.    Backed  by  his  well- 


130  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

disciplined,  well-trained,  invincible  army,  he 
had  swept  everything  before  him.  Dm-ing 
Roger  Williams'  stay,  he  usurped  even  more 
power  and  was  made  the  Lord  Protector  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  England.  It  was 
well  for  Providence  Plantations  that  it  had 
so  influential  a  friend  at  court.  Cromwell 
was  very  gracious  to  the  colony's  representa- 
tive, frequently  having  long  talks  with 
Roger  Williams  and  asking  many  questions 
about  the  Narragansett  province  across  the 
sea.  The  Indians  of  that  section  interested 
him  especially.  Roger  Williams  needed  no 
urging  to  impart  all  the  information  he 
could  on  this  topic  so  near  his  heart.  Yet 
not  even  Cromwell's  friendship  secured  a 
speedy  settlement  of  the  charter  trouble. 

The  question  was  referred  to  the  Council 
of  State.  Meanwhile,  Roger  Williams  kept 
his  colony  informed  from  time  to  time  as  to 
the  results  of  his  labors.  First,  he  wrote 
that  the  Council  had  given  him  encourage- 
ment and  had  decided  that  the  charter  was 
binding  until  further  orders  were  issued. 
Next,  he  was  able  to  send  the  welcome  news 
that  the  Coddington  charter  was  annulled 


THE  SECOND  MISSION  131 

and  that  the  towns  were  to  unite  as  form- 
erly. As  we  shall  see,  this  was  more  easily 
said  than  done. 

Though  much  had  been  gained,  the  final 
settlement  was  not  yet  reached.  While 
waiting,  Roger  Williams  had  his  hands  full 
seeing  to  it  that  his  struggling  province 
across  the  water  was  not  cheated  out  of  its 
rights.  For  one  thing,  war  broke  out  be- 
tween the  Dutch  and  English.  Naturally, 
this  national  struggle  caused  less  important 
affairs  to  be  pushed  aside  for  the  time  being. 
Then  the  friends  of  the  charter  had  to  fight 
opposition  among  persons  of  high  position 
and  influence.    So  the  matter  dragged  on. 

In  one  of  his  letters  describing  these 
drawbacks,  Roger  Williams  did  not  forget 
to  send  his  love  to  his  Indian  friends.  The 
correspondence  was  not  all  one-sided.  The 
people  of  Providence,  in  turn,  kept  Roger 
Williams  in  touch  with  affairs  at  home. 
Though  they  did  not  always  appreciate  the 
great,  whole-souled  man  while  he  lived 
quietly  among  them,  whenever  they  were 
left  to  their  own  devices,  they  awoke  to  some 
realization  of  his  worth.    They  passed  their 


132  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

troubles  on  to  him  and  asked  his  advice,  as 
if  the  poor  man  had  not  already  enough 
burdens  of  his  own  to  carry!  They  did  not 
stop  here.  They  wrote  an  earnest  letter 
asking  him  to  accept  the  governorship  of  the 
colony  for  a  year  in  case  the  charter  should 
be  confirmed. 

A  more  ambitious  man  would  eagerly 
have  grasped  the  opportunity  thus  offered. 
He  would  have  seen  in  it  the  possibility  of 
power,  influence,  perhaps  riches.  Not  so 
Roger  Williams.  In  his  own  humble, 
modest  way,  he  was  content  to  go  on  as  be- 
fore, sacrificing  his  own  interests  for  those 
of  the  colony,  whether  repaid  for  his  efforts 
or  not. 

Cromwell  was  not  the  only  prominent 
man  in  England  with  whom  Roger  Wil- 
liams was  on  intimate  terms.  He  renewed 
his  friendship  with  Sir  Henry  Vane  and 
was  a  frequent  visitor  at  his  house — either 
in  his  lodgings  at  Whitehall  or  at  his  beau- 
tiful country  estate  Belleau  in  Lincolnshire. 
This  tried  and  true  friend,  having  lived  in 
both  old  and  New  England,  could  under- 
stand and  sympathize  with  Roger  Wilhams 


THE  SECOND  MISSION  133 

as  perhaps  nobody  else  could.  He  was  not 
only  his  personal  friend,  but  a  friend  of  the 
Providence  colony  as  well.  "The  sheet 
anchor  of  our  ship,"  wrote  Roger  Williams, 
"is  Sir  Henry,  who  will  do  as  the  eye  of 
God  leads  him." 

John  Milton  was  another  brilliant  man 
with  whom  Roger  Williams  associated  dur- 
ing this  period.  He  was  the  secretary  of 
the  Council  of  State  and  later  became 
world-famous  as  the  author  of  "Paradise 
Lost."  The  condition  of  the  great  man  at 
this  time  was  pitiable.  He  was  fast  grow- 
ing blind.  He  said  of  his  affliction  in  after 
years : 

"....,  My  light  is  spent 
Ere  half  my  days  in  this  dark  world  and  wide, 
And  that  one  talent  which  is  death  to  hide, 
Lodged  with  me  useless " 

He  and  Roger  Williams  exchanged  lan- 
guages, Roger  Williams  reading  to  him  in 
Dutch  and  receiving  in  return  instruction 
in  other  languages.  Roger  Williams' 
familiarity  with  other  tongues  than  his  own 
was  truly  remarkable.  We  have  seen  how 
he  had  studied  and  conquered  the  Indian 


134  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

dialects.  Now  during  his  stay  in  the  mother 
country,  he  practiced  Hebrew,  Greek, 
Latin,  French  and  Dutch. 

The  study  of  languages,  however,  was  not 
all  that  occupied  Roger  Williams  during 
the  two  years  and  a  half  that  he  awaited 
the  triumph  of  his  charter.  He  wrote  sev- 
eral books  and  pamphlets  that  represent 
some  of  the  best  literary  work  of  his  life. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  when  in  Eng- 
land before,  he  had  published  a  book  called 
"The  Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution,"  in 
which  he  voiced  his  views  on  toleration. 
This  was  later  answered  by  John  Cotton, 
who,  borrowing  a  portion  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams' title,  added  to  it  and  called  his  work 
"The  Bloody  Tenent  Washed  and  Made 
White  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb."  Roger 
Williams  could  not  let  the  matter  rest  here 
— he  was  too  ardent  an  apostle  of  liberty  of 
conscience. 

So  now  he  took  the  opportunity  to  get 
ready  for  publication  a  reply  to  his  antag- 
onist, this  time  under  the  overwhelming 
heading  of  "The  Bloody  Tenent  Yet  More 
Bloody  by  Mr.  Cotton's  Endeavor  to  Wash 


THE  SECOND  MISSION  135 

it  White  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb."  If  the 
controversy  had  been  carried  any  further, 
who  knows  what  cumbersome  and  unwieldy 
titles  might  not  have  been  inflicted  upon  the 
reading  public!  Roger  Williams,  in  refer- 
ring to  the  above  book  in  its  relation  to  Mr. 
Cotton's  arguments,  said  it  had  "unwashed 
his  washings." 

England  at  this  period  was  divided  on  the 
question  of  toleration.  There  were  those 
who  favored  only  partial  religious  liberty, 
others  who  took  the  stand  that  Roger  Wil- 
liams had  supported  all  these  years — abso- 
lute soul  liberty  without  interference  from 
the  civil  power.  These  broad-minded  men 
argued  that  the  Jews,  who  had  been  perse- 
cuted time  and  again, by  the  rulers  of  Eng- 
land and  had  been  excluded  from  the  land 
for  several  hundred  years,  should  be  allowed 
to  live  freely  and  peaceably  in  the  forbidden 
country. 

Here  was  a  chance  for  Roger  Williams 
to  strike  another  blow  at  oppression.  The 
despised  race  could  have  had  no  better 
champion.    Writing  in  their  behalf,  he  said: 

"I  humbly  conceive  it  to  be  the  duty  of 


136  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

the  civil  magistrate  to  break  down  that 
superstitious  wall  of  separation  (as  to  civil 
things)  between  us  Gentiles  and  the  Jews, 
and  freely  (without  their  asking)  to  make 
way  for  their  free  and  peaceable  habitation 
amongst  us. 

"As  other  nations,  so  this  especially,  and 
the  kings  thereof,  have  had  just  cause  to 
fear  that  the  un-Christian  oppressions,  in- 
civilities and  inhumanities  of  this  nation 
against  the  Jews  have  cried  to  Heaven 
against  this  nation  and  the  kings  and  princes 
of  it. 

"For  the  removing  of  which  guilt,  and  the 
pacifying  of  the  wrath  of  the  Most  High 
against  this  nation,  and  for  the  furthering 
of  that  great  end  of  propagating  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  Jesus;  It  is  humbly  conceived  to 
be  a  great  and  weighty  duty  which  is  upon 
this  state,  to  provide  (on  the  Jews'  account) 
some  gracious  expedients  for  such  holy  and 
truly  Christian  ends." 

It  may  be  that  this  stand  taken  by  Roger 
Williams  influenced  Cromwell  in  his  later 
treatment  of  the  oppressed  people.  With- 
out openly  welcoming  them  back  into  Eng- 


THE  SECOND  MISSION  137 

land,  he  did,  as  one  writer  has  put  it,  allow 
them  to  enter  by  the  back  door. 

Poverty  was  still  a  heavy  handicap  to 
Roger  Williams.  To  raise  needed  funds, 
he  was  not  ashamed  to  turn  to  any  kind  of 
employment  so  long  as  it  was  honorable. 
Thus  we  read  of  his  giving  language  lessons 
to  the  sons  of  a  member  of  Parliament.  As 
to  his  methods,  they  were  both  reasonable 
and  interesting.  There  was  no  forcing  of 
dry  old  set  formulas  upon  his  pupils  to  be 
learned  by  heart.  Instead,  he  substituted 
what  would  be  called  to-day  the  "natural 
method" — that  is,  he  taught  those  words  and 
phrases  in  most  common  use  by  means  of 
easy  conversations.  Happy  students,  to 
have  a  teacher  who  thought  grammar  rules 
a  "tyranny" !  So  well  did  these  lessons  suc- 
ceed that  after  Roger  Williams  returned  to 
America,  he  taught  his  own  three  boys  in 
the  same  way. 

Once  more  the  poor  of  London  were  his 
debtors.  His  own  wants  were  never  of  so 
much  importance  as  those  of  his  neighbors. 
As  on  the  previous  visit,  he  helped  supply 
the  needy  with  fuel. 


138  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

One  episode  of  Roger  Williams'  stay  in 
London  was  amusing,  yet  pathetic  as  well. 
All  the  years  he  had  spent  in  New  England 
he  had  not  forgotten  the  kind  friend  of  his 
youth,  Sir  Edward  Coke.  It  therefore  oc- 
curred to  him,  now  that  he  was  in  his  native 
land  once  more,  to  make  inquiries  after  the 
daughter  of  the  famous  judge,  Mrs.  Anne 
Sadlier.  He  did  so  in  a  courteous  letter, 
at  the  same  time  sending  her  one  of  his  dis- 
courses that  had  recently  been  printed. 
The  good  lady  had  the  rudeness  to  return  it, 
saying  that  she  read  little  beyond  a  few 
standard  religious  works.  That  she  looked 
upon  her  father's  former  protege  as  a  dan- 
gerous advanced  thinker  is  shown  by  her 
saying  bluntly  that  she  believed  his  "new 
lights  would  prove  but  dark  lanterns."  In 
reply,  Roger  Williams  referred  her  to  the 
volumes  covering  his  late  controversy  with 
John  Cotton.  Shocked  beyond  measure  at 
the  mere  title  "Bloody  Tenent,"  Mrs. 
Sadlier  did  not  attempt  to  read  further  and 
tartly  told  her  correspondent  not  to  trouble 
her  again.  With  more  persistence  than 
wisdom,  Roger  Williams  did  write  still  once 


THE  SECOND  MISSION  139 

more.  Mrs.  Sadlier  was  thoroughly  roused 
by  the  sermon-like  epistle  he  sent  and  in 
anything  but  lady-like  language,  told  the 
writer  he  had  a  "face  of  brass."  Poor 
Roger  Williams  was  silenced  at  last. 

With  this  spirited  correspondence  Mrs. 
Sadlier  left  the  following  memorandum: 
"Full  little  did  he  (Sir  Edward  Coke) 
think  that  he  (Roger  Williams)  would  have 
proved  such  a  rebel  to  God,  the  king  and  his 
country.  I  leave  his  letters,  that,  if  ever  he 
has  the  face  to  return  into  his  native 
country,  Tyburn  may  give  him  welcome." 

In  spite  of  his  busy  days  and  the  im- 
portance of  the  errand  which  was  keeping 
him  in  England,  Roger  Williams  was  very 
homesick  at  times.  He  yearned  to  see  the 
faces  of  his  sons  and  daughters.  He  longed, 
too,  for  his  gentle  wife — his  "dear  yoke- 
fellow"— and  even  proposed  her  joining 
him  over-seas  in  several  of  his  letters.  One 
of  the  pamphlets  he  published  while  abroad 
(the  one  that  Mrs.  Sadlier  rejected)  was 
in  the  form  of  a  letter  addressed  to  Mrs. 
Williams.     It  had  been  written  some  time 


140  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

before  on  the  occasion  of  her  recovery  from 
a  dangerous  illness  while  he  was  absent  from 
home  working  among  the  Indians.  Though 
there  is  more  of  the  sermon  than  love-letter 
about  it,  still  we  find  these  exquisite  lines: 

"My  dear  love,  since  it  pleaseth  the  Lord 
so  to  dispose  of  me,  and  of  my  affairs  at 
present,  that  I  cannot  often  see  thee,  I  de- 
sire often  to  send  to  thee.  ...  I  send  thee 
(though  in  winter)  an  handful  of  flowers 
made  up  in  a  little  posy,  for  thy  dear  self 
and  om*  dear  children,  to  look  and  smell  on." 

Rather  flowery  language,  perhaps,  to 
apply  to  a  religious  tract,  yet  it  affords  a 
satisfying  glimpse  of  deep  husbandly  and 
fatherly  affection. 

Roger  Williams  finally  made  up  his  mind 
to  return  to  New  England,  though  the 
charter  matter  was  not  yet  closed.  It  was 
not  alone  thoughts  of  his  own  immediate 
family  that  induced  him  to  make  this  deci- 
sion. His  larger  family — his  unruly,  quar- 
relsome colonial  family — needed  him  quite 
as  badly.  He  therefore  left  the  interests  of 
Providence  Plantations  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 


THE  SECOND  MISSION  141 

Clarke  and  turned  homeward.  The  English 
government  granted  him  a  safe  passage 
through  Massachusetts  and,  early  in  the 
summer  of  1654,  he  landed  in  Boston. 


CHAPTER   XII 

EOGER  TTILLIAMS  AS   COLONIAL   PRESIDENT 

What  the  people  of  Providence  Planta- 
tions needed  and  deserved  was  a  good  round 
scolding.  They  received  it  in  the  form  of 
a  sharp  letter  addressed  to  the  colony  by 
Sir  Henry  Vane  and  entrusted  to  Roger 
Williams.     He  wrote: 

"How  is  it  that  there  are  such  divisions 
amongst  you?  Such  headiness,  tumults, 
disorders,  injustice?  The  noise  echoes  into 
the  ears  of  all,  as  well  friends  as  enemies, 
by  every  return  of  ships  from  those  parts. 
.  .  .  Are  there  no  wise  men  amongst  you? 
No  public  self-denying  spirits,  that  at  least, 
upon  the  grounds  of  public  safety,  equity 
and  prudence,  can  find  out  some  way  or 
means  of  union  and  reconciliation  for  you 
amongst  yourselves,  before  you  become  a 
prey  to  common  enemies,  especially  since 
this  state,  by  the  last  letter  from  the  Council 
of  State,  give  you  your  freedom,  as  sup- 


AS  COLONIAL  PRESIDENT  143 

posing  a  better  use  would  have  been  made 
of  it  than  there  hath  been?  Surely,  when 
kind  and  simple  remedies  are  applied  and 
are  ineffectual,  it  speaks  loud  and  broadly 
the  high  and  dangerous  distempers  of  such 
a  body,  as  if  the  wounds  were  incurable." 

Then,  calling  upon  their  higher  nature, 
he  concluded  by  saying  kindly,  "But  I  hope 
better  things  from  you." 

Roger  Williams,  too,  penned  a  strong  let- 
ter on  the  subject.  He  was  weary  at  heart 
because  of  the  constant  dissensions  around 
him.  Now  he  gently  reminded  his  friends 
and  neighbors  of  Providence  that  "Only  by 
pride  cometh  contention,"  and  "Love  cover- 
eth  a  multitude  of  sins,"  but  at  the  same 
time  he  did  not  hesitate  to  rehearse  the  trials 
he  had  been  through  for  their  good.  In 
plain,  direct  language,  he  said  that  for  being 
their  "stepping-stone,"  he  had  received 
nothing  but  grief,  sorrow  and  bitterness. 
Only  a  hard-hearted  people  could  have 
withstood  such  pathetic  words  as  these : 

"It  hath  been  told  me  that  I  labored  for  a 
licentious  and  contentious  people;  that  I 
have  foolishly  parted  with  town  and  colony 


'  144  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

advantages,  by  which  I  might  have  pre- 
served both  town  and  colony  in  as  good 
order  as  any  in  the  country  about  us.  .  .  . 
I  was  unfortunately  fetched  and  drawn 
from  my  employment,  and  sent  to  so  vast 
distance  from  my  family,  to  do  your  work 
of  a  high  and  costly  nature,  for  so  many 
days  and  weeks  and  months  together,  and 
there  left  to  starve,  or  steal,  or  beg  or  bor- 
row. But  blessed  be  God,  who  gave  me 
favor  to  borrow  one  while,  and  to  work  an- 
other, and  thereby  to  pay  your  debts  there, 
and  to  come  over  with  your  credit  and  honor, 
as  an  agent  from  you,  who  had,  in  your 
name,  grappled  with  the  agents  and  friends 
of  all  your  enemies  round  about  you." 

For  once.  Providence  Plantations  had  the 
grace  to  be  ashamed  of  itself.  For  a  while, 
at  least,  it  was  on  its  good  behavior.  The 
citizens  of  Providence  appointed  Roger 
Williams  to  send  a  reply  to  Sir  Henry 
Vane,  their  friendly  critic  across  the  water. 
In  this  letter,  they  freely  acknowledged 
their  shortcomings,  but  with  this  excuse: 

"Possibly  a  sweet  cup  hath  rendered 
many  of  us  wanton  and  too  active,  for  we 


AS  COLONIAL  PRESIDENT  145 

have  long  drunk  of  the  cup  of  as  great 
liberties  as  any  people  that  we  can  hear  of 
under  the  whole  heaven." 

Forgetting  their  jealousies  and  differ- 
ences, the  four  towns  united  and  established 
the  government  on  the  old  basis.  There  was 
peace  for  the  time  being,  due  largely  to  the 
fact  that  on  September  12,  1654,  Roger 
Williams  was  elected  president  of  the  colony 
and  continued  to  serve  in  that  capacity  for 
two  and  a  half  years.  He  would  far  rather 
have  preferred  to  remain  a  private  citizen, 
but  was  overcome  by  the  wishes  of  others. 
Once  again  he  was  guided  by  the  watch- 
word "Service." 

The  first  problem  with  which  Roger 
Williams  had  to  grapple  concerned  the  In- 
dians. The  Narragansetts  and  the  natives 
of  Long  Island  were  at  war,  and  the  Com- 
missioners of  the  United  Colonies  had  tried 
in  vain  to  subdue  the  former.  They  sent 
an  armed  force  against  the  Narragansetts, 
which,  however,  was  unsuccessful.  They 
might  have  pushed  the  matter  further  had 
it  not  been  for  Roger  Williams'  action  at 
this  crisis.     He  sent  a  letter  to  Massachu- 


146  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

setts  calling  the  attention  of  that  colony  to 
the  following  facts:  that  their  families  had 
been  allowed  to  grow  up  in  peace  among 
the  Indians;  that  the  conversion  of  the  sav- 
ages was  not  possible  so  long  as  unnecessary 
and  cruel  wars  were  waged  against  them; 
that  even  so-called  successful  wars  usually 
resulted  in  fearful  losses  as  well  as  gains. 

He  did  not  neglect  to  put  in  a  good  word 
for  his  friends,  the  Narragansetts,  who,  he 
said,  had  never  stained  their  hands  with 
English  blood.  Through  all  their  territory, 
he  added.  Englishmen  had  frequently 
traveled  alone  in  perfect  safety. 

Whether  or  not  Massachusetts  was  moved 
by  this  appeal,  she  certainly  acted  as  Roger 
Williams  hoped  she  would.  She  passed 
the  word  round  that  hostilities  would  be 
dropped.  Thus  again  the  prevention  of 
an  Indian  massacre  was  probably  due  to  the 
efforts  of  the  great  peace-maker. 

One  of  the  laws  passed  during  Roger 
Williams'  term  of  office  concerned  the  sale 
of  strong  drink  to  the  Indians.  Though 
laws  had  been  passed  before  covering  this 
point,  they  had  not  been  enforced.     Now 


AS  COLONIAL  PRESIDENT  147 

the  new  statute  provided  that  two  "ordinary 
keepers"  in  each  town  should  be  the  only 
persons  authorized  to  sell  liquor  or  wine  to 
the  natives  and  that  the  amount  should  be 
limited  to  a  quarter  of  a  pint  a  day.  In 
case  the  inn-keeper  allowed  any  Indian  cus- 
tomers to  become  intoxicated,  he  was  liable 
to  be  fined  twenty  shillings  for  each  person 
found  in  such  a  condition.  This  regulation, 
while  not  all  that  could  be  desired,  doubtless 
reduced  the  drink  evil  greatly  and  so 
increased  the  safety  of  the  colonists. 

In  spite  of  the  good  intentions  of  Provi- 
dence Plantations,  Roger  Williams'  path 
continued  to  be  a  thorny  one.  Stubborn 
and  quarrelsome  individuals  caused  him  no 
end  of  trouble  by  refusing  to  obey  the  exist- 
ing form  of  government.  The  principles 
for  which  their  leader  had  worked  and  sac- 
rificed were  altogether  too  big  for  them  to 
comprehend.  His  parable  of  the  ship  meant 
nothing  to  them.  They  misunderstood  lib- 
erty of  conscience  to  mean  license  to  do 
whatever  they  pleased. 

Now  it  is  true  that  Roger  Williams  had 
maintained  from  the  first  that  religious  lib- 


148  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

erty  should  be  enjoj^ed  without  interference 
from  the  government.  He  had  never 
preached,  however,  that  the  government  had 
no  business  to  put  a  stop  to  disturbances  if 
they  threatened  the  general  welfare  of  the 
colony.  In  short,  any  community  must 
protect  the  rights  of  its  members  if  it  would 
continue  to  exist. 

Rumors  of  the  above  difficulties  reached 
the  ears  of  Oliver  Cromwell.  Too  occupied 
with  important  affairs  in  old  England  to 
trouble  himself  with  the  bickerings  of  a 
small  group  of  people  in  New  England,  he 
yet  took  time  to  write  a  brief  note  to  the 
colony.  He  charged  the  inhabitants  to  pre- 
serve peace  and  safety  and  to  avoid  dis- 
honor to  the  Commonwealth  and  themselves 
through  differences  at  home  or  invasions 
from  outside. 

This  order  from  the  Lord  Protector  was 
the  very  weapon  needed  by  Roger  Williams 
and  others  who  were  working  for  good  gov- 
ernment. It  placed  a  wholesome  restraint 
upon  several  turbulent  spirits  and  allowed 
those  in  authority  to  enforce  their  just  de- 
mands.    The  most  troublesome  rebel,  how- 


AS  COLONIAL  PRESIDENT  149 

ever,  could  not  be  kept  in  subjection  very 
long.  He  was  William  Harris,  to  whom 
a  legal  dispute  was  as  the  very  air  he 
breathed.  For  many  years  he  was  Roger 
Williams'  thorn  in  the  flesh  until  that  usu- 
ally mild  and  forgiving  individual  had  him 
arrested  on  a  charge  of  treason  for  his 
persistent  opposition  to  the  government. 

William  Coddington,  who,  perhaps  more 
than  any  other  person,  had  been  to  blame 
for  the  discord  that  distressed  Roger  Wil- 
liams, now  came  forward  and  promised 
obedience.  Much  as  we  disapprove  of  his 
disloyalty,  we  cannot  help  admiring  his 
simple  and  dignified  behavior  as  he  publicly 
professed  his  allegiance: 

"I,  William  Coddington,  do  freely  submit 
to  the  authority  of  his  Highness  in  this 
colony  as  it  is  now  united,  and  that  with  all 
my  heart." 

During  Roger  Williams'  presidency, 
Warwick  and  Pawtuxet  continued  to  be  a 
source  of  vexation.  Certain  inhabitants  of 
those  settlements  still  rebelled  against  their 
proper  authorities,  claiming  that  they  owed 
allegiance  to  Massachusetts  alone.     Even 


150  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

the  Indians  used  the  name  of  the  Bay 
Colony  to  cover  acts  of  lawlessness.  Roger 
Williams  protested  in  writing  to  Massa- 
chusetts against  her  encouragement  of  such 
a  state  of  affairs.  Not  receiving  a  satis- 
factory answer  to  his  first  letter,  he  wrote  a 
second  time. 

One  matter  which  he  discussed  in  this 
correspondence — the  question  of  defence 
against  possible  Indian  outbreaks — was  as 
vital  as  land  disputes.  It  was  necessary 
that  his  colony  secure  a  supply  of  ammuni- 
tion. Twice  he  asked  Massachusetts  for  the 
privilege  of  purchasing  it  from  her,  but  she 
flatly  refused  to  sell  it.  Her  action  was  both 
unneighborly  and  unjust. 

The  condition  of  Providence  Plantations 
at  this  time  was  extremely  dangerous.  As 
an  exposed  frontier  colony,  unshielded  from 
the  Indians  about  her,  her  risk  of  attacks  by 
them  was  always  greater  than  that  of  her 
more  protected  sister  colonies.  Though  the 
natives,  as  a  general  thing,  had  a  wholesome 
respect  for  Roger  Williams,  yet  it  was  not 
safe  to  trust  the  best  of  them.  Canonicus 
md  Miantonomo  were  both  dead.     There 


AS  COLONIAL  PRESIDENT  151 

was  no  knowing  to  what  lengths  their  tribe 
might  go  when  equipped  with  firearms  and 
strong  drink.  There  was  no  doubt  that  they 
had  been  so  supplied  by  unscrupulous 
Dutchmen  and  the  very  same  Englishmen 
who  had  refused  to  sell  to  the  colonists. 
Roger  Williams'  indignant  words  showed 
clearly  what  he  thought  of  such  practices: 

"For  myself  ...  I  have  refused  the  gain 
of  thousands  by  such  a  murderous  trade, 
and  think  no  law  yet  extant  .  .  .  secure 
enough  against  such  villainy." 

In  addition  to  the  possibility  of  Indian 
attacks,  there  was  also  a  chance  that  the 
colony  might  go  to  war  with  the  neighbor- 
ing Dutch  province.  Such  an  outbreak 
would  indeed  be  a  calamity,  as  many  sup- 
plies came  by  way  of  New  Amsterdam; 
still,  as  England  and  Holland  were  at  war, 
hostilities  might  easily  extend  to  America. 

Now  Roger  Williams  and  his  colony  were 
firm  believers  in  preparedness.  Not  being 
able  to  keep  ammunition  and  liquor  entirely 
out  of  reach  of  the  natives,  they  resolved 
upon  the  next  best  thing — to  meet  the 
danger  by  having  the  colony  ready  to  de- 


152  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

fend  itself  should  occasion  arise.  In  such  a 
course  alone  lay  safety.  Instead  of  waiting 
until  actual  attacks  were  begun,  it  was  wise 
to  take  time  by  the  forelock  and  prepare 
beforehand. 

A  beginning  had  already  been  made  along 
this  line  years  before.  "Train  bands"  were 
organized  early  in  the  history  of  the  colony 
for  military  drill,  and  in  1650  the  towns 
were  required  by  law  to  have  their  guns  in 
good  condition  and  to  keep  a  magazine  of 
arms  and  ammunition.  Newport's  appor- 
tionment was  the  greatest  of  all,  as  she  was 
the  largest  and  most  flourishing  of  the 
settlements.  Yet  even  her  means  of  defence 
was  pitifully  small — three  barrels  of  pow- 
der, one  thousand  pounds  of  lead,  twelve 
pikes  and  twenty-four  muskets. 

Another  measure  of  defence  was  now 
proposed — the  erection  of  a  fort  at 
Stampers'  Hill,  in  Providence.  The  story 
of  the  naming  of  this  spot  is  too  curious  to 
be  passed  by.  One  of  the  Rhode  Island 
historians  tells  the  story  thus: 

"Soon  after  the  settlement  of  Providence, 
a  body  of  Indians  approached  the  town  ip  3, 


AS  COLONIAL  PRESIDENT  153 

hostile  manner.  Some  of  the  townsmen,  by 
running  and  stamping  on  this  hill,  induced 
them  to  believe  that  there  was  a  large  num- 
ber of  men  stationed  there  to  oppose  them, 
upon  which  they  relinquished  their  design 
and  retired.  From  this  circumstance  the  hill 
was  always  called  Stampers'  Hill,  or  more 
generally,  the  Stampers." 

A  street  of  this  name  is  still  to  be  found 
on  the  map  of  Providence. 

The  same  year  that  the  fort  was  discussed, 
a  consignment  of  powder  and  shot  was  re- 
ceived by  the  colony  from  John  Clarke  in 
England.  It  was  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Roger  Williams  and  distributed  by  him  so 
that  each  town  received  one  barrel  of  pow- 
der and  two  barrels  of  shot  each.  It  was 
ordered  by  the  General  Assembly  that 
money  be  raised  to  pay  for  it  to  the  sum 
of  "ten  pound  in  good  and  well-sorted 
strung  peage  (wampum),  after  the  rate  of 
eight  white  per  penny,  and  four  black  per 
penny,  from  each  town."  Clarke's  assign- 
ment was  inadequate  enough  for  the  needy 
colony,  still  it  was  something. 

Happily,   the   worst   of   the   threatened 


154  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

troubles  did  not  materialize.  As  a  result  of 
Roger  Williams'  second  letter  to  Massachu- 
setts, John  Endicott,  then  governor,  invited 
his  old  friend  to  Boston.  Roger  Williams 
accepted  the  invitation  and  his  trip  did  much 
to  lessen  friction  between  the  two  colonies. 
A  curious  record  shows  that  stormy  little 
Warwick  did  her  part  to  make  the  presi- 
dent's mission  a  success.  She  voted  forty 
shillings  out  of  her  treasury,  provided  a 
horse  for  the  journey,  and  also  a  pair  of 
"Indian  breeches"  for  Roger  Williams' 
Indian. 

The  Dutch  war  cloud  failed  to  burst. 
Peace  was  declared  between  the  warring 
nations  across  the  water  before  New  Nether- 
land  and  Providence  Plantations  came  to 
blows. 

The  fear  of  the  Indians,  too,  gradually 
lessened.  The  matter  of  fortifications  was 
apparently  dropped  and  neither  during 
Roger  Williams'  term  of  office  nor  for  many 
years  afterwards  did  the  Narragansetts 
spoil  their  record  by  shedding  the  blood  of 
their  white  neighbors.     We  like  to  think 


AS  COLONIAL  PRESIDENT  155 

that  the  colony's  best  safeguard  at  this  time 
was  its  president — a  better  defence  than 
firearms  and  forts,  one  that  stood  for  justice 
and  harmony. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  QUAKERS 

In  the  year  1656,  Boston  was  in  a  fever  of 
excitement.  Some  Quakers  had  come  to 
town. 

The  sect  had  first  put  in  an  appearance  in 
England  under  the  teachings  of  one  George 
Fox,  an  earnest,  conscientious  preacher  who, 
at  the  early  age  of  nineteen,  had  felt  called 
upon  to  give  up  everything  for  religion. 
How  his  disciples  came  to  receive  their  curi- 
ous name  is  npt  positively  known.  One 
theory  is  that  they  were  so-called  because 
they  were  given  to  excitable,  nervous  trem- 
blings, but  the  Quakers  themselves  have 
claimed  a  different  origin.  According  to 
them,  at  one  time  when  Mr.  Fox  was  ar- 
rested and  sent  to  prison  in  England,  he 
called  upon  those  around  him  to  tremble  at 
the  word  of  the  Lord.  Thereupon  the  mag- 
istrate who  pronounced  the  sentence  be- 
stowed    the    term     "Quakers"     upon    his 


COMING  OF  THE  QUAKERS         157 

followers.  In  any  case,  it  was  a  nickname, 
a  term  of  contempt  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, and  did  not  then,  as  later,  carry  with 
it  respect  and  honor. 

But  why  should  Massachusetts  be 
alarmed  at  the  coming  of  this  people?  Did 
she  object  to  their  habit  of  using  *'thee"  and 
"thou"  in  ordinary  speech?  Did  she -•con- 
sider that,  by  keeping  their  heads  covered 
even  in  the  presence  of  the  authorities,  they 
were  lacking  in  proper  respect?  Or  was  it 
that  their  refusal  to  take  up  arms  even  in 
a  just  war  was  a  dangerous  doctrine?  The 
Bay  Colony  doubtless  disapproved  of  all 
these  things.  But  there  were  other  reasons 
— and  stronger  ones — why  she  frowned 
upon  the  newcomers. 

First,  the  Quakers  professed  to  be  guided 
by  an  "inner  light."  Whatever  it  directed 
them  to  do,  or  they  thought  it  directed  them 
to  do,  that  they  did,  regardless  of  conse- 
quences. It  was  their  sole  authority,  higher 
even  than  the  commands  of  the  Massachu- 
setts magistrates  and  elders.  The  colony 
decided  to  put  an  end  to  such  unheard-of 
thinking  at  once.     They  were  all  the  more 


158  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

resolved  to  do  this  because  of  the  peculiar 
actions  of  the  Quakers.  A  few  misguided 
ones,  professing  to  be  led  by  this  same  "inner 
light,"  did  the  most  extravagant  things  in 
their  zeal  to  spread  their  faith.  They  used 
rude,  harsh  language,  they  went  about  half- 
naked,  were  disorderly  in  the  streets,  and  in 
other  ways  tried  to  attract  attention.  One 
Quaker  even  created  a  disturbance  in  a 
meeting-house  in  Boston.  Entering  with 
two  bottles  in  his  hands,  he  crashed  them 
before  the  assembled  congregation,  crying, 
"Thus  will  the  Lord  break  you  in  pieces!" 
In  these  frenzied  disciples  of  Fox  there  was 
almost  no  resemblance  to  the  quiet,  respect- 
able, inoffensive  Friends  of  to-day. 

If  such  outbreaks  had  occurred  in  other 
parts  of  New  England,  the  offenders  would 
have  been  punished — yes,  even  in  the  liberal 
colony  planted  by  Roger  Williams.  For 
being  annoyed,  Massachusetts  cannot  be 
blamed.  For  resorting  to  the  extreme 
measures  she  did  in  dealing  with  the  fol- 
lowers of  Fox,  the  Bay  Colony  had  no  ex- 
cuse. It  is  one  of  the  dark  blots  on  her 
history. 


COMING  OF  THE  QUAKERS         159 

The  very  year  the  Quakers  appeared,  a 
severe  law  was  put  into  effect  against  them. 
It  provided  that  all  ship-masters  bringing 
Quakers  into  the  colony  should  be  fined  one 
hundred  pounds  and  should  give  security  to 
carry  them  back  whence  they  came,  that  all 
persons  of  this  belief  should  be  committed 
to  the  House  of  Correction,  first  whipped 
and  then  kept  hard  at  work  until  trans- 
ported. In  addition,  a  fine  of  five  pounds 
was  imposed  for  every  Quaker  book  or  writ- 
ing found  in  the  colony.  The  penalty  for 
defending  Quaker  opinions  was  forty  shil- 
lings for  the  first  offence,  four  pounds  for 
the  second,  and  banishment  for  the  third. 

Calmly,  unresistingly,  the  persecuted  ones 
paid  their  fines,  served  their  prison  terms, 
allowed  themselves  to  be  banished,  and — 
kept  on  doing  the  same  things  over  and  over 
again  I  Massachusetts  did  not  realize  in  the 
least  that  she  was  using  the  very  best  means 
of  encouraging  the  faith  that  she  wished  to 
stamp  out.  The  Quakers  wanted  to  be 
martyrs.  They  gloried  in  suffering  and 
abuse.  The  more  they  were  down-trodden, 
the  more  they  increased  and  prospered. 


160  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

Now  we  come  to  the  part  played  by  the 
little  colony  of  Providence  Plantations  in 
the  controversy.  Roger  Williams  was  still 
president  when  the  severities  of  Massachu- 
setts began.  When  banished  from  that  col- 
ony, the  Quakers  had  to  seek  a  new  home,  of 
course.  What  more  convenient  or  attractive 
refuge  than  that  of  Narragansett  Bay, 
where  liberty  of  worship  was  not  considered 
a  crime?  So  they  flocked  thither  in  increas- 
ing numbers. 

Roger  Williams'  great  principle,  upon 
which  the  colony  was  founded,  was  now  put 
to  a  severe  test,  the  most  severe  it  had  ever 
known.  Hitherto,  all  pilgrims  of  whatever 
creed,  or  no  creed  at  all,  had  been  made 
heartily  welcome.  But  would  a  like  invita- 
tion be  extended  this  strange,  peculiar  peo- 
ple, who  were  in  disgrace  everywhere  else? 
The  answer  came  boldly,  courageously — 
yes. 

The  United  Colonies  decided  it  was  their 
duty  to  show  their  liberal  sister  colony  the 
error  of  her  ways.  The  commissioners, 
therefore,  informed  her  that  as  they  con- 
sidered they  could  not  be  too  careful  in  pre- 


COMING  OF  THE  QUAKERS         161 

serving  themselves  from  such  a  pest  as 
"Quakers,  ranters,  and  such  notorious  here- 
tics," they  would  ask  that  all  persons  of  the 
despised  sect  be  removed  from  the  Colony 
of  Providence  Plantations  and  in  the  future 
be  prohibited  from  entering  it. 

The  reply  to  this  command  was  exactly 
what  might  be  expected.  Roger  Williams' 
term  of  office  had  expired,  but  his  spirit  was 
still  in  the  air.  In  two  letters  the  brave  lit- 
tle colony  placed  herself  on  record  as  to  the 
stand  she  took  in  regard  to  the  unpopular 
Quakers. 

"As  concerning  these  Quakers  which  are 
now  among  us,"  the  first  letter  went  on,  "we 
have  no  law  among  us  whereby  to  punish 
for  only  declaring  by  words,  etc.,  their  minds 
and  understandings  concerning  the  things 
and  ways  of  God,  as  to  salvation  and  an 
eternal  condition." 

One  shrewd  bit  of  advice  was  also  given, 
which  the  other  colony  might  well  have 
heeded.  Providence  Plantations  pointed 
out  that  if  no  attention  was  paid  the  Quak- 
ers, they  would  quickly  cease  to  be  trouble- 
some. 


162  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

"And  we  moreover  find,"  the  writers  ex- 
plained, "that  in  those  places  where  these 
people  aforesaid  in  this  colony  are  most  of 
all  suffered  to  declare  themselves  freely  and 
are  only  opposed  by  arguments  in  discourse, 
there  they  least  of  all  desire  to  come,  and  we 
are  informed  that  they  begin  to  loathe  this 
place,  for  that  they  are  not  opposed  by  the 
civil  authority,  but  with  all  patience  and 
meekness  are  suffered  to  say  over  their  pre- 
tended revelations  and  admonitions,  nor  are 
they  like  or  able  to  gain  many  here  to  their 
way;  surely  we  find  that  they  delight  to  be 
persecuted  by  civil  powers,  and  when  they 
are  so,  they  are  like  to  gain  more  adherents 
by  the  conceit  of  their  patient  sufferings 
than  by  consent  to  their  pernicious  sayings." 

In  the  second  letter  penned  by  Providence 
Plantations,  the  colony  reminded  the  com- 
missioners that  she  still  prized  "freedom  of 
different  consciences  as  the  greatest  happi- 
ness that  men  can  possess  in  this  world."  If 
the  Quakers  disturbed  the  civil  peace,  then, 
and  then  only,  would  interference  be  justi- 
fied.   In  that  case,  the  matter  would  be  re- 


Statue  of  Roger  Williams, 
Roger  Williams  Park,  Providence 


COMING  OF  THE  QUAKERS         163 

ferred  to  England  and  the  offenders  be  sent 
thither. 

The  United  Colonies  then  replied,  hinting 
that  Providence  Plantations  would  be  cut 
off  from  all  trade  if  disobedience  was  per- 
sisted in.  After  this  threatened  boycott, 
the  colonists  concluded  it  was  wise  to  take 
some  steps  for  protecting  themselves,  but 
recede  from  their  position  they  would  not. 
They  therefore  sent  a  letter  to  their  good 
friend  and  agent  in  England,  John  Clarke, 
asking  that  he  use  his  influence  in  their 
behalf. 

"They  seem  secretly  to  threaten  us,"  the 
letter  ran,  "by  cutting  us  off  from  all  com- 
merce and  trade  with  them.  .  .  .  They  make 
the  prices,  both  of  our  commodities  and  their 
own  also,  because  we  have  not  English  coin, 
but  only  that  which  passeth  among  these  bar- 
barians and  such  commodities  as  are  raised 
by  the  labor  of  our  hands,  as  com,  cattle, 
tobacco,  and  the  like,  to  make  payment  in, 
which  they  will  have  at  their  own  rate,  or 
else  not  deal  with  us. 

"So  may  it  please  you  to  have  an  eye  and 
care  open  in  case  our  adversaries  should  seek 


164  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

to  undermine  us  in  our  privileges  granted 
unto  us  and  to  plead  our  case  in  such  sort 
as  we  may  not  be  compelled  to  exercise  any 
civil  power  over  men's  consciences^  so  long 
as  humane  orders  in  point  of  civility  are  not 
corrupted  and  violated." 

Brave,  ringing  words,  that  deserve  to.  be 
written  in  letters  of  gold! 

Massachusetts,  meanwhile,  continued  in 
her  unfortunate  course,  which,  happily,  the 
other  colonies  did  not  follow  so  severely. 
Imprisonment,  fines,  and  banishment  were 
followed  by  physical  mutilation.  As  a  final 
step,  profession  of  the  Quaker  faith  was 
made  a  capital  offence.  This  law  was  not 
popular  with  the  people  at  large,  who  were 
far  more  tender-hearted  than  their  magis- 
trates. Very  few  received  this  extreme  sen- 
tence. The  only  woman  to  pay  the  death 
penalty  was  Mary  Dyre,  wife  of  one  of  the 
leading  citizens  of  Providence  Plantations, 
who  refused  to  keep  out  of  the  forbidden 
territory. 

In  1661,  Charles  II,  then  the  reigning 
monarch  of  England,  issued  a  decree  put- 
ting a  stop  to  further  persecution.     Thus 


COMING  OF  THE  QUAKERS         165 

closed  the  five  dreadful  years  of  Quaker 
punishment  in  New  England. 

The  Quakers,  let  alone,  became  useful  and 
respected  citizens  and  contributed  a  large 
share  toward  the  well-being  of  the  commu- 
nities in  which  they  lived.  In  the  colony 
of  Providence  Plantations,  they  steadily 
gained  followers  and  for  over  one  hundred 
years  took  an  active  part  in  public  affairs. 
They  occupied  positions  of  prominence  and 
influence,  especially  in  Newport.  For  five 
years,  beginning  1672,  Rhode  Island  had  a 
succession  of  Quaker  governors. 

The  noble  part  played  by  the  colony  in 
the  dark  days  of  Quaker  history  was  due, 
in  large  part,  to  the  teachings  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams. The  stand  taken  by  him  and  his  fel- 
low colonists  deserves  all  the  more  credit 
because,  personally,  they  disliked  and  dis- 
approved of  the  Quakers.  How  easy,  then, 
it  would  have  been  to  inflict  punishment 
upon  them  and  to  have  found  a  perfectly 
good  excuse  for  so  doing! 

Roger  Williams  wrote  John  Winthrop, 
Jr.,  his  Connecticut  correspondent,  that  he 
rejoiced  the  latter's  name  was  not  blurred  but 


166  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

rather  honored,  for  his  prudent  and  moder- 
ate hand  in  the  Quaker  trials. 

For  a  moment  we  must  skip  a  few  years 
to  the  date  1672,  which  brings  us  to  the  last 
chapter  of  Quaker  history  which  has  to  do 
with  Roger  Williams.  In  view  of  that  part 
of  the  story  that  has  gone  before,  the  ad- 
mirers of  the  great  man  are  a  bit  sorry  that 
this  chapter  ever  had  to  be  written.  It  hap- 
pened when  George  Fox,  the  noted  leader 
of  the  Quakers,  visited  the  colony.  Roger 
Williams  promptly  challenged  him  to  a  de- 
bate, religious  discussions  of  this  kind  being 
very  common  in  that  day.  Failing  to  make 
arrangements  to  carry  out  this  plan,  he  de- 
bated with  three  of  Fox's  most  capable  dis- 
ciples instead.  They  argued  three  days  in 
Newport  and  one  day  in  Providence.  In 
order  to  reach  the  first  debating-place, 
Roger  Williams  rowed  all  the  way  from 
Providence  to  Newport,  a  distance  of  thirty 
miles.  It  was  an  all  day's  work — no  small 
task  for  a  man  about  seventy  years  of  age. 

The  meeting  was  a  heated  one.  Nearly 
every  one  lost  his  temper  and  even  Roger 


COMING  OF  THE  QUAKERS         167 

Williams  was  unlike  his  usual  kindly,  char- 
itable self.  Nobody's  opinion  was  changed 
and  both  sides  claimed  the  victory.  Each 
published  a  book  presenting  long,  dry,  un- 
interesting arguments.  That  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams was  entitled  "George  Fox  digged  out 
of  his  Burrows,"  while  the  Quaker  volume 
was  called  "A  New  England  Firebrand 
Quenched." 

Whatever  may  be  thought  about  Roger 
Williams'  part  in  these  proceedings,  he  him- 
self thought  he  was  doing  the  colony  a  serv- 
ice by  arguing  the  matter  in  public.  It 
was  probably  his  purpose  to  show  that  the 
community  did  not  approve  of  disorder 
and  disrespect  of  the  authorities.  He  main- 
tained that  it  was  not  persecution  to  pun- 
ish moderately  for  such  disrespect  and 
grotesque  offences  as  had  marked  the  advent 
of  the  Friends  in  Massachusetts. 

In  spite  of  his  views  concerning  the  early 
Quakers,  Roger  Williams  numbered  among 
his  friends  many  of  this  faith.  He  never 
allowed  his  prejudices  to  govern  him  in  his 
dealings  with  them.    Best  of  all — and  to  his 


168  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

lasting  glory  be  it  said — he  never  lifted  a 
finger  against  them,  and  no  page  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  colony  he  founded  is  stained  with 
Quaker  blood. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

ROGER  WILLIAMS  AS  CITIZEN 

Through  all  the  ups  and  downs  of  her 
troubled  history.  Providence  Plantations 
had  remained  loyal  to  England.  The  little 
colony  had  allowed  unusual  liberty  in  many 
ways — liberty  unknown  in  other  parts  of 
New  England — but  had  never  faltered  in 
her  obedience  to  the  mother  country.  Thus 
when  Oliver  Cromwell  was  at  the  head  of 
affairs,  she  considered  him  her  rightful  ruler. 
A  like  loyalty  was  paid  his  son  Richard. 
Again,  when  the  country  once  more  became 
a  monarchy,  in  1660,  she  hastened  to  assure 
Charles  II  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay  province  were  his  true  and 
faithful  subjects. 

The  news  of  his  accession  to  the  throne 
was  received  with  great  enthusiasm.  The 
General  Court  appointed  an  hour  for  pro- 
claiming "His  Royal  Majesty,  King  Charles 
the  Second,  King  of  England,  with  all  the 


170  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

dominions  and  territories  thereunto  belong- 
ing" and  military  officers  were  ordered  to 
rally  the  "train  band"  for  the  occasion.  Be- 
sides this,  another  special  day  was  set  apart 
for  solemnizing  the  event,  which  was  also 
carried  out  in  true  military  fashion.  All 
children  and  servants  were  given  a  holiday. 
The  flowery  and  submissive  language  with 
which  Charles  was  acknowledged  monarch 
must  sound  curious  enough  to  the  demo- 
cratic descendants  of  these  same  colonists. 

In  the  midst  of  all  the  joyful  festivities, 
one  concern  filled  the  minds  of  everybody. 
Their  right  to  continued  existence  must  be 
confirmed.  It  was  clear  that  Cromwell's 
approval  was  out  of  date.  It  would  have 
no  weight  with  the  restored  Stuart  sover- 
eign. A  second  charter  must  be  obtained, 
one  that  would  bear  the  undeniable  stamp 
of  royal  authority.  Thereupon  Providence 
Plantations  sent  word  to  her  faithful  agent, 
John  Clarke,  asking  him  to  secure  the  de- 
sired charter.  By  this  time  the  patient  man 
must  have  been  prepared  for  any  kind  of 
request  from  over  the  sea. 

His  success  was  announced  in  the  year 


AS  CITIZEN  171 

1663.  It  would  seem  that  charters  were  go- 
ing up  in  price.  According  to  Roger  Wil- 
liams* testimony,  this  second  one  meant  an 
outlay  of  about  a  thousand  pounds.  It  was 
cheap  at  that,  considering  the  great  privi- 
leges it  carried  with  it.  Under  this  precious 
new  document,  the  colony  continued  to  live 
for  one  hundred  and  eighty  years,  long  after 
the  close  of  Roger  Williams'  life.  When 
finally  abandoned,  it  was  the  oldest  consti- 
tutional charter  in  the  world. 

A  "very  great  meeting  of  the  freemen" 
of  the  colony  was  held  to  receive  the  royal 
paper  with  due  respect  and  honor.  With 
appropriate  ceremony.  Captain  George 
Baxter,  the  bearer,  opened  the  box  in  which 
it  was  kept  and  read  the  gracious  words  of 
Charles  to  the  assembly,  after  which  the 
charter  was  "held  up  on  high  and  presented 
to  the  perfect  view  of  the  people,"  then 
safely  locked  up  in  the  box  again. 

By  virtue  of  this  latest  document,  the 
colony  received  a  new  name^ — or,  rather,  a 
bulky  addition  to  its  old  one.  In  this  char- 
ter it  was  called  "The  English  Colony  of 
Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations, 


172  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

in  New  England,  in  America."  From  now 
on,  the  name  "Rhode  Island"  became  more 
prominent  and  "Providence  Plantations" 
less  so  until,  in  common  usage,  it  was 
dropped  altogether.  In  1776,  the  word 
"State"  was  substituted  for  "English 
Colony." 

Besides  a  change  of  name,  the  charter 
also  provided  that  henceforth  governors 
should  take  the  place  of  presidents  and  the 
first  governor  and  his  assistants  were 
named.  Roger  Williams  was  one  of  the  lat- 
ter and  he  repeatedly  held  this  office  in  the 
years  following. 

The  most  wonderful  part  of  the  whole 
charter  was  that  section  granting  perfect 
liberty  of  conscience  to  the  colony.  It  was 
all  the  more  remarkable  and  surprising,  as 
King  Charles  was  not  noted  for  either  tol- 
erance or  liberality. 

"Our  royal  will  and  pleasure  is  that  no 
person  within  the  said  colony  any  time  here- 
after, shall  be  any  wise  molested,  punished, 
disquieted,  or  called  in  question,  for  any  dif- 
ferences in  opinion  in  matters  of  religion, 
and  do  not  actually  disturb  the  civil  peace  of 


AS  CITIZEN  173 

our  said  colony;  but  that  all  and  every  per- 
son and  persons  may,  from  time  to  time, 
and  at  all  times  hereafter,  freely  and  fully 
have  and  enjoy  his  and  their  own  judgments 
and  consciences,  in  matters  of  religious  con- 
cernments, throughout  the  tract  of  land 
hereafter  mentioned." 

The  words  might  have  been  penned  by 
Roger  Williams  himself.  Very  likely  they 
never  would  have  been  written  had  it  not 
been  for  his  persistent  struggle  for  that  same 
liberty  of  conscience,  about  which  he  said, 
"We  must  part  with  lands  and  lives  before 
we  part  with  such  a  jewel." 

The  founder  of  Rhode  Island  and  Prov- 
idence Plantations  was  now  approaching 
the  evening  of  life.  He  had  carefully 
watched  and  tended  the  infant  colony  so  that 
it  could  stand  alone.  He  had  raised  it  to  a 
position  of  respect  and  importance.  For 
his  unselfish  and  loving  labors,  he  surely  de- 
served a  brief  period  of  rest.  Yet,  contrary 
to  his  wishes,  he  was  drawn  into  public  life 
again.  He  wrote  his  friend  Winthrop  these 
reluctant  words:  "I  have  since  been  occa- 
sioned and  drawn  (being  nominated  in  the 


174  HOGER  WILLIAMS 

charter  to  appear  again  upon  the  deck) 
from  my  beloved  privacy;  my  humble  de- 
sires are  to  contribute  my  poor  mite  (as  I 
have  ever,  and  I  hope  ever  shall)  to  preserve 
plantation  and  public  interest  of  the  whole 
N"ew  England  and  not  interest  of  this  or 
that  town,  colony,  opinion,  etc." 

From  this  time  on,  both  in  and  out  of 
office,  Roger  Williams  showed  what  an  im- 
mense amount  of  good  can  be  accomplished 
by  a  public-spirited  citizen  if  he  is  willing 
to  sacrifice  selfish  aims  for  the  benefit  of  all. 
Time  and  again  there  was  occasion  for  him 
to  act  as  peace-maker,  as  in  the  years  gone 
by.  Gentleness,  tact,  and  forbearance  were 
the  means  he  used.  In  a  word,  he  was  a 
great  diplomat.  Because  his  victories  were 
bloodless  ones,  his  fellow-citizens  did  not 
appreciate  his  greatness. 

For  one  thing,  Roger  Williams  was 
chosen  to  copy  the  charter  into  the  records  of 
the  colony.  For  drawing  up  colonial  docu- 
ments of  various  kinds,  his  skill  was  con- 
stantly in  demand.  In  1664,  when  a  revision 
of  the  laws  was  thought  necessary,  he  was 
appointed  member  of  a  committee  to  attend 


AS  CITIZEN  175 

to  this  business.  In  the  same  year  he  was 
named  one  of  the  agents  to  determine  an 
eastern  boundary  line  between  the  colony 
and  Plymouth. 

Indian  troubles  were  never  settled  with- 
out his  intervention.  Here  he  knew  his 
ground  perfectly  and  could  be  trusted  by 
all  parties  concerned  to  give  just  decisions. 
The  Indians  of  Warwick,  as  we  have  seen, 
caused  endless  trouble  for  the  colonists, 
claiming  that  as  they  had  pledged  allegiance 
to  Massachusetts,  Providence  Plantations 
had  no  right  to  punish  them  for  lawless  acts. 
Now  the  sachem  Pumham,  who  occupied 
Warwick  Neck,  had  no  legal  right  to  the 
land,  as  his  superior  sachem  had  sold  it 
years  before.  Again  and  again  he  stub- 
bornly refused  to  budge  an  inch,  though  the 
town  of  Warwick  had  paid  him  twenty 
pounds  to  seek  a  home  elsewhere. 

About  this  time,  four  commissioners  were 
sent  over  to  New  England  by  King  Charles 
for  the  purpose  of  hearing  complaints,  set- 
tling boundary  disputes  and  like  claims,  and 
establishing  the  peace  and  security  of  the 
country.     They  now  applied  themselves  to 


176  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

the  task  of  ousting  the  mulish  Indian  chief. 

Before  long  Roger  Williams  took  a  hand 
in  the  matter.  He  got  in  touch  with  Sir 
Robert  Carr,  one  of  the  royal  agents,  and 
calmly  and  clearly  reviewed  for  him  the  en- 
tire history  of  the  quarrel.  Then,  instead 
of  urging  force  and  harshness,  he  explained 
that  very  different  means  must  be  employed 
with  the  natives.  He  likened  them  to  oxen, 
who,  if  treated  with  cruelty,  will  die  rather 
than  yield,  but  with  patience  and  gentleness, 
can  be  made  to  give  good  and  willing  serv- 
ice. "Lay  all  the  blame  on  me,"  he  con- 
cluded, "and  on  my  intercession  and  media- 
tion, for  a  little  further  breathing  to  the 
barbarians  until  harvest,  in  which  time  a 
peaceable  and  loving  agreement  may  be 
wrought,  to  mutual  consent  and  satisfac- 
tion." 

Roger  Williams  was  a  wise  prophet.  The 
sensible  commissioner  took  advantage  of  his 
co-operation  and  finally  the  matter  was 
closed  to  everybody's  satisfaction.  And 
this  without  a  drop  of  blood  being  shed, 
thanks  to  the  man  who  believed  that  even 
erring  natives  should  be  treated  as  human 


AS  CITIZEN  177 

beings.  "I  respect  not  one  party  more  than 
the  other,"  he  once  said  in  a  similar  quarrel, 
"but  I  desire  to  witness  truth;  and  as  I  de- 
sire to  witness  against  oppression,  so,  also, 
against  the  slighting  of  civil,  yea,  of  bar- 
barous order  and  government." 

We  are  glad  to  know  that  the  commis- 
sioners of  King  Charles  handed  their  royal 
master  a  very  favorable  report  of  the  Rhode 
Island  colony.  They  even  had  a  good  word 
for  the  Narragansett  Indians.  The  natives 
had  pledged  their  allegiance  to  the  king  and, 
in  token  of  their  subjection,  promised'  to 
pay  His  Majesty  two  wolfskins  a  year. 
They  also  sent  Charles  some  truly  barbarous 
tokens  of  affection,  including  two  wampum 
caps,  two  clubs  inlaid  with  wampum,  and  a 
feather  mantle,  besides  a  porcupine  bag  for 
the  queen.  It  is  a  pity  these  gifts  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Dutch  and  never  reached 
their  destination.  What  a  sensation  they 
would  have  made  at  court  among  the  nobles 
and  ladies-in-waiting!  But  the  giving  was 
not  all  on  one  side.  Two  coats  were  pre- 
sented the  sachems  in  the  king's  name,  with 
which  they  were  greatly  pleased.    It  would 


178  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

not  be  surprising  if  Roger  Williams  had 
made  the  suggestion,  knowing  the  Indian 
weakness  in  matters  of  dress. 

An  opportunity  came  for  Roger  Williams 
to  use  his  influence  in  behalf  of  John  Clarke, 
the  good  friend  of  the  colony  who  had  la- 
bored in  her  interests  in  the  mother  country 
for  twelve  long  years.  It  had  been  voted  to 
pay  him  for  his  trouble,  but  due  either  to 
poverty  or  unwillingness  (probably  both), 
the  required  amount  had  not  been  forthcom- 
ing. So  the  matter  dragged  on,  long  after 
the  charter  affair  was  settled  and  the  agent 
had  returned  to  America.  Even  back  in 
London  days,  Mr.  Clarke  was  so  short  of 
funds  that  he  had  been  obliged  to  mortgage 
his  Newport  home.  Stung  to  the  quick  by 
what  he  considered  rank  ingratitude,  Roger 
Williams  wrote  a  sharp  letter  to  Warwick, 
the  most  backward  town. 

"It  is  no  more  honest,"  he  wrote,  "for  us 
to  withdraw  in  this  case  than  for  men  to 
come  to  an  ordinary  [tavern]  and  to  call 
for  the  best  wine  and  liquors,  the  best  meats, 
roast  and  baked,  the  best  attendance,  etc., 
and  to  be  able  to  pay  for  all  and  yet  most 


AS  CITIZEN  179 

unworthily  steal  away  and  not  discharge  the 
reckoning."  Then  changing  his  figure  of 
speech,  he  continued: 

"Shall  we  say  we  are  Christians  ...  to 
ride  securely  in  a  troublous  sea  and  time  by  a 
new  cable  and  anchor  of  Mr.  Clarke's  pro- 
curing, and  be  so  far  from  satisfying  his  en- 
gagement about  them,  that  we  turn  him 
adrift  to  languish  and  sink,  with  his  back 
broke  for  putting  under  his  shoulder  to  ease 
us?" 

The  letter  quickened  the  colony  to  further 
action.  The  mortgaged  home  was  saved, 
but,  unfortunately,  the  debt  was  never  paid 
in  full. 

There  were  boundary  disputes  during 
these  years,  both  among  the  colonists  them- 
selves and  with  outsiders.  In  Providence, 
troubles  arose  from  the  Indian  grants  made 
so  many  years  before.  Mr.  Harris,  Roger 
Williams'  old  enemy,  and  others  interpreted 
the  language  of  the  Indian  deed  to  mean 
that  Canonicus  and  Miantonomo  had  really 
given  away  several  hundred  thousand  acres 
of  land  that  had  never  been  taken  possession 
of  by  the  colonists.    To-day,  if  a  pretended 


180  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

claim  of  a  similar  nature  should  come  up, 
we  would  very  likely  call  it  a  case  of  clear 
"graft."  Roger  Williams,  ever  on  the  de- 
fensive when  the  Indians  were  concerned, 
declared  stoutly  that  the  chiefs  had  meant 
nothing  of  the  kind.  And,  indeed,  what 
man  was  better  informed  on  this  subject 
than  Roger  Williams  himself?  Had  he  not 
dealt  directly  with  the  Narragansett  sa- 
chems? Had  he  not  talked  with  them  in 
their  own  tongue?  He  so  persistently 
blocked  and  delayed  every  measure  to  ap- 
propriate the  territory  in  question  that  the 
matter  was  never  carried  to  a  successful  fin- 
ish. Still  the  short-sighted  grumblers  called 
his  whole-hearted  interest  "meddling."  With 
saddened  heart,  he  recorded  their  taunts: 

"But  some  cried  out,  when  Roger  Wil- 
liams had  laid  himself  down  as  a  stone  in 
the  dust,  for  after-comers  to  step  on  in  town 
and  colony,  *What  is  Roger  Williams? 
We  know  the  Indians  and  the  sachems  as 
well  as  he.  We  will  trust  Roger  Williams 
no  longer.  We  will  have  our  bounds  con- 
firmed us  under  the  sachems'  hands  befpri^ 
us/" 


AS  CITIZEN  181 

The  details  of  the  other  boundary  quar- 
rels make  dry,  difficult  reading  in  these  days. 
They  are  interesting  only  as  they  bring  out 
the  character  of  Roger  Williams  and  the 
part  he  played  in  trying  to  adjust  them. 
The  disputed  land  was  principally  the  Nar- 
ragansett  country,  or  the  southern  half  of 
the  present  state  of  Rhode  Island.  Massa- 
chusetts claimed  territory  here,  so  did  Plym- 
outh, and,  added  to  their  encroachments, 
were  those  of  Connecticut.  If  the  land  had 
been  divided  up  as  they  all  wished,  little 
enough  would  have  been  left  of  tiny  Rhode 
Island  to  form  a  respectable  state  after- 
wards ! 

Roger  Williams  saw  in  this  desire  to  an- 
nex territory  a  prevailing  greed  for  land, 
which  he  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  greatest 
failings  of  New  England.  He  could  not 
understand  how  his  countrymen  of  the  other 
colonies  "should  not  be  content  with  those 
vast  and  large  tracts  (like  platters  and 
tables  full  of  dainties),  but  pull  and  snatch 
away  their  poor  neighbors'  bit  or  crust"; 
adding,  "and  a  crust  it  is,  and  a  dry,  hard 


182  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

one,  too,  because  of  the  natives'  continual 
troubles,  trials  and  vexations." 

To  Major  Mason  of  Connecticut  he 
wrote  a  letter  (which  has  since  become  fa- 
mous) upholding  the  rights  of  Rhode  Is- 
land. That  prominent  man  afterwards  ad- 
vised his  colony  that  he  hardly  thought  it 
wise  to  attempt  to  acquire  the  land  in  ques- 
tion. Thus  we  infer  that  Roger  Williams' 
diplomacy  did  much  to  avert  further  ag- 
gression on  the  Connecticut  side  at  least. 

Not  all  Roger  Williams'  tasks  were  big 
ones.  He  was  not  the  man  to  say  that  be- 
cause he  was  capable  of  great  things,  he 
would  let  the  little  things  slip  by.  He  per- 
formed numberless  neighborly  services  of 
a  legal  character,  either  as  witness  or  execu- 
tor. It  fell  upon  him  to  take  charge  of  the 
house  and  lot  of  a  certain  John  Clawson,  a 
Dutchman,  whom  he  had  befriended  when 
needy  and  employed  as  a  household  servant. 
He  had  taught  him  to  read  and  given  him 
a  Dutch  Testament.  It  is  amusing  to  think 
that  this  Providence  real  estate  was  valued 
at  eleven  pounds.  More  amusing  still  were 
the  terms  of  its  disposal.    Roger  Williams 


AS  CITIZEN  183 

sold  it  for  "current  country  pay"  in  three 
yearly  instalments  of  cloth,  stockings,  corn 
and  apples.  Even  on  these  easy  terms,  the 
buyer  took  about  double  the  time  for  pay- 
ment that  the  agreement  allowed. 

Public  spirit  was  sometimes  at  a  low  ebb 
in  early  Providence.  Thus  there  was  no 
end  of  trouble  trying  to  erect  a  suitable 
bridge  near  the  center  of  the  town  and  keep- 
ing it  in  proper  repair.  The  townspeople 
argued,  deliberated,  debated,  but  nobody 
seemed  aggressive  enough  to  push  the  work. 
Finally  Roger  Williams  stepped  into  the 
breach.  "I  will,  with  God's  help,  take  this 
bridge  unto  my  care."  What  a  relief  it 
must  have  been  to  realize  that  somebody  had 
taken  the  initiative  at  last !  He  made  Provi- 
dence a  business-like  proposition,  whereby 
the  citizens  were  to  donate  their  labor,  the 
amount  being  apportioned  to  the  use  they 
would  make  of  the  bridge  and  whether  they 
had  a  team  or  not.  This  sharing  of  work 
was  only  fair,  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  town 
were  to  be  exempt  from  toll,  a  moderate 
sum  being  asked  of  strangers  only. 

There  was  nothing  striking,  nothing  im- 


184  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

pressive,  about  these  public  services  of 
Roger  Williams  and  they  did  not  win  the 
applause  of  the  crowd.  Sometimes  they 
gained  for  him  nothing  but  unpopularity. 
Yet  at  no  other  period  in  his  long  career  do 
we  get  a  finer  idea  of  the  real  nobility  of  the 
man  than  in  these  latter  years  when  old  age 
was  coming  on  and  his  word  was  perhaps 
not  listened  to  with  the  respect  of  former 
days.  He  cheerfully  took  up  and  faithfully 
performed  the  local  duties  that  came  his 
way,  though  he  had  been  recognized  by  Par- 
liament, had  been  on  an  intimate  footing 
with  the  greatest  statesmen  of  England,  and 
was  himself  one  of  the  wisest,  most  far- 
sighted  men  of  his  age.  This  was  citizenship 
at  its  best. 


CHAPTER   XV 


KING  Philip's  war 


It  is  not  easy  to  tell  the  true  cause  of  King 
Philip's  War.  There  were  probably  many 
causes,  some  of  them  dating  years  back. 
Such  a  struggle  was  bound  to  come,  sooner 
or  later,  to  determine  who  should  remain 
masters  of  New  England — the  first  comers 
or  the  white  men  from  over  the  sea.  More 
than  once  Roger  Williams  had  postponed 
the  evil  day,  but  even  his  influence  was  not 
great  enough  to  prevent  the  smouldering 
fires  of  jealousy,  distrust  and  revenge  from 
finally  bursting  into  a  destructive  con- 
flagration. 

Back  in  1620,  when  the  Pilgrims  landed 
in  Plymouth,  they  had  formed  a  treaty  of 
peace  with  Massasoit,  chief  of  the  Wam- 
panoags.  This  faithful  Indian  sachem  kept 
his  word  during  the  remaining  years  of  his 
life. 

The  colonists  wer§  not  so  fortunate  in 


186  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

their  dealings  with  his  son  and  successor, 
Wamsutta  or  Alexander.  Word  was  sent 
to  the  governior  that  he  plotted  mischief 
against  the  English  and  had  asked  the  Nar- 
ragansetts  to  aid  him  in  his  rebellion.  De- 
termining to  put  an  end  to  such  disloyalty 
at  once,  the  governor,  after  Alexander's  re- 
fusal to  attend  court,  had  him  arrested  and 
taken  to  Plymouth.  It  was  a  most  unfor- 
tunate business,  thus  to  humiliate  a  proud 
chief  on  his  own  territory.  Suddenly  Alex- 
ander became  violently  ill  and  died  almost 
immediately.  The  exact  cause  of  his  death 
is  not  known,  but  probably  extreme  heat 
and  anger  hastened  the  end.  Bad  feeling 
between  the  Indians  and  their  white  neigh- 
bors was  the  immediate  result  of  this  mis- 
fortune. Some  of  Alexander's  followers, 
including  his  wife,  even  spread  the  report 
that  the  sachem  had  been  poisoned.  This 
was  untrue,  but  it  furnished  one  of  the 
causes  of  the  hostilities  that  followed. 

Metacomet  or  Philip,  Alexander's 
brother  and  the  next  chief  of  the  Wam- 
panoags,  was  not  one  to  submit  to  wrongs 
tamely.    Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  soon 


KING  PHILIP'S  WAR  187 

had  occasion  to  suspect  him  of  secretly  plan- 
ning war.  In  their  uneasiness,  they  ap- 
pealed to  Roger  Williams  and  he  succeeded, 
for  the  time  being,  in  breaking  up  Philip's 
designs.  Largely  through  his  influence,  the 
war  was  put  off  for  four  years.  Outwardlj^ 
obedient,  the  Wampanoag  chief  gave  up 
about  seventy  guns  to  the  English  as  proof 
of  his  fidelity.  There  is  no  reason  to  think, 
however,  that  he  abandoned  the  idea  of  a 
war  when  the  time  should  be  ripe.  For  sev- 
eral years  he  merely  "marked  time"  until 
everything  should  be  in  readiness. 

The  struggle  was  finally  begun  in  the 
summer  of  1675,  sooner  than  Philip  had 
meant.  One  of  his  nearest  advisers,  a  con- 
verted Indian,  betrayed  his  chief's  plot  to 
the  English.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to 
strike  at  once.  To  be  just  to  King  Philip, 
he  doubtless  thought  he  had  good  and  suf- 
ficient reason  for  his  action.  He  summed 
up  the  causes  of  the  conflict  thus : 

"By  various  means  they  [the  English] 
got  possession  of  a  great  part  of  his  [Mas- 
sasoit's]  territory.  But  he  still  remained 
their  friend  till  he  died.    My  elder  brother 


188  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

became  sachem.  They  pretended  to  suspect 
him  of  evil  designs  against  them.  He  was 
seized  and  confined^  thereby  thrown  into 
sickness  and  died.  Soon  after  I  became 
sachem,  they  disarmed  all  my  people.  They 
tried  my  people  by  their  own  laws ;  assessed 
damages  against  them,  which  they  could  not 
pay.  Their  land  was  taken.  At  length  a 
line  of  division  was  agreed  upon  between 
the  English  and  my  people,  and  I  myself 
was  to  be  answerable.  Sometimes  the  cattle 
of  the  English  would  come  into  the  corn- 
fields of  my  people,  as  they  did  not  make 
fences  like  the  English.  I  must  then  be 
seized  and  confined,  till  I  sold  another  tract 
of  my  country  for  satisfaction  of  all  dam- 
ages and  costs.  Thus,  tract  after  tract  is 
gone.  But  a  small  part  of  the  dominions 
of  my  ancestors  remains.  I  am  determined 
not  to  live  till  I  have  no  country." 

There  was  grave  danger  of  a  Narragan- 
sett  alliance.  Philip  had  been  working  for 
it  for  a  long  time.  The  chief  sachems  of 
the  Rhode  Island  Indians  at  this  time 
were  Pessicus,  Miantonomo's  brother,  and 
Canonchet,  Miantonomo's  son,  and  there- 


KING  PHILIP'S  WAR  189 

fore  nephew  of  Pessicus.  They  were  joint 
rulers,  much  like  Canonicus  and  Mian- 
tonomo  in  the  earlier  days.  But,  whereas 
Canonicus  and  Miantonomo  had  been  in 
favor  of  peace  at  almost  any  price,  their 
descendants  were  not  so  submissive.  A  far 
different  spirit  fired  them.  Pessicus,  it  is 
true,  gave  Roger  Williams  to  understand 
that  he  was  peaceable  enough,  but  had  dif- 
ficulty restraining  the  younger  men  of  his 
tribe.  Canonchet,  on  the  other  hand  (the 
"hopeful  spark"  of  Miantonomo,  as  Roger 
Williams  called  him),  was  openly  declared 
the  war  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts.  The 
cruel  death  of  his  father  still  rankled  and  he 
would  have  been  less  than  human  had  he 
not  longed  to  make  the  most  of  the  oppor- 
tunity for  revenge  that  now  came  to  him 
without  his  seeking. 

The  colony  of  Rhode  Island  strongly  op- 
posed the  war.  The  inhabitants  had  no  just 
quarrel  with  the  Indians.  Besides,  they 
were  under  Quaker  influence  and  people 
of  this  faith  did  not  believe  in  taking  up 
arms. 

Five    Rhode    Island    citizens,    probably 


190  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

Friends,  bent  on  a  peaceful  settlement  of 
the  dispute,  arranged  for  a  meeting  with 
Philip.  The  story  of  their  conference  is 
quaintly  told  by  Mr.  John  Easton,  the 
deputy  governor  of  the  colony  and  the  head 
of  the  party: 

"We  sat  very  friendly  together.  We  told 
him  [Philip]  our  business  was  to  endeavor 
that  they  might  not  ...  do  wrong.  They 
said  that  was  well ;  they  had  done  no  wrong, 
the  English  wronged  them.  We  said  we 
knew  the  English  said  the  Indians  wronged 
them,  and  the  Indians  said  the  English 
wronged  them,  but  our  desire  was  the  quar- 
rel might  rightly  be  decided,  in  the  best  way, 
and  not  as  dogs  decided  their  quarrels.  The 
Indians  owned  that  fighting  was  the  worst 
way :  then  they  propounded  how  right  might 
take  place." 

It  was  unfortunate  for  the  warring  colo- 
nists, and  the  Indians  as  well,  that  nothing 
came  of  this  attempt  at  arbitration.  There 
was  one  hope  left — Roger  Williams.  The 
Boston  authorities  sent  three  men  to  Rhode 
Island  with  the  earnest  request  that  he  try 
to  bring  the  Narragansetts  to  terms.     He 


KING  PHILIP'S  WAR  191 

answered  the  call  with  his  usual  prompt 
willingness.  Within  half  an  hour,  he  had 
left  Providence  and  was  on  his  way,  with 
the  three  messengers,  to  the  Narragansett 
country.  He  had  no  trouble  in  securing  an 
audience  with  Canonchet,  Pessicus  and 
other  leading  Narragansetts.  They  greeted 
him  with  fair,  smooth  words — altogether  too 
fair  and  smooth  to  be  sincere.  They  agreed 
to  hand  over  any  of  Philip's  men  who  fell 
into  their  hands,  to  remain  hostile  to  the 
Wampanoag  sachem,  to  deliver  up  all  stolen 
goods  to  the  English,  to  refrain  from 
further  theft,  and  to  serve  as  a  guard  about 
the  Narragansett  country  for  the  protection 
of  the  English. 

Poor  Roger  Williams!  Devotedly,  un- 
ceasingly he  worked  until,  as  he  said,  his  old 
bones  and  eyes  were  weary  with  travel  and 
writing.  So  constantly  was  his  pen  in  use 
that  his  stock  of  letter  paper  completely 
gave  out.  Writing  to  the  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, he  said,  "Since  I  am  oft  occa- 
sioned to  write  upon  the  public  business,  I 
shall  be  thankful  for  a  little  paper  upon  the 
public  account,  being  now  near  destitute." 


192  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

And  all  the  time  he  could  not  help  but 
"suspect  that  all  the  fine  words  from  the 
Indian  sachems  to  us  were  but  words  of  pol- 
icy, falsehood  and  treachery."  His  fears 
were  well  grounded.  No  sooner  had  the 
Massachusetts  men  started  on  their  home- 
ward journey  than  one  hundred  armed  Nar- 
ragansetts  appeared  in  Warwick  and  terri- 
fied the  town.  Warning  was  received,  too, 
from  Pessicus  that  the  English  in  the  Nar- 
ragansett  country  would  do  well  to  be  on 
their  guard  and  to  keep  strict  watch.  If 
they  could  strongly  fortify  one  or  two 
houses,  so  much  the  better;  if  not,  then  flight 
was  their  only  course. 

It  was  plain  that  the  Narrangansetts 
could  be  held  in  leash  no  longer.  The  call 
of  their  Indian  allies — blood  of  their  blood 
— completely  drowned  out  the  gentle  voice 
of  Roger  Williams.  The  prayer  of  Canon- 
icus — yes,  and  of  Massasoit,  too — that  their 
children  after  them  might  live  in  love  and 
peace  with  the  English  forever  was  not  to 
be  realized.  Sadly  the  best  friend  the  Nar- 
ragansetts  ever  had  was  forced  to  confess 


KING  PHILIP'S  WAR  193 

that  the  tribe  must  be  subdued  as  wolves 
who  have  attacked  sheep. 

Meanwhile,  the  settlement  of  Swansea, 
near  the  boundary  line  between  Rhode  Is- 
land and  Plymouth,  had  been  ravaged  by 
Philip's  men  and  several  persons  killed  and 
wounded.  The  war  then  spread  with  light- 
ning rapidity  through  the  different  towns 
of  Massachusetts.  Connecticut,  too,  was  in- 
vaded, for  the  Indians  of  the  Connecticut 
River  had  thrown  themselves  into  the  strug- 
gle. Rhode  Island  as  a  colony  kept  out  of 
the  war,  but  she  was  not  allowed  to  remain 
untouched.  The  Narragansett  country  be- 
came, in  turn,  a  battle-ground  in  the  winter 
of  1675. 

The  Narragansetts  were  accused  by  the 
English  of  having  sheltered  Philip's  peo- 
ple, and,  as  some  of  the  young  braves  now 
and  then  returned  to  their  homes  wounded, 
it  was  considered  proof  that  they  had,  too, 
been  on  the  war-path.  Massachusetts, 
Pljrmouth  and  Connecticut  decided  to  break 
the  power  of  the  Narragansetts  before 
they  could  join  Philip  in  the  spring.  They 
therefore  raised  a  strong  force  of  over  a 


194  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

thousand  men  and,  strengthened  by  Rhode 
Island  volunteers,  marched  to  a  point  in 
the  neighborhood  of  what  is  now  South 
Kingston. 

The  Indians  had  stoutly  intrenched  them- 
selves in  a  fort  in  the  midst  of  a  treacherous 
swamp.  Here,  on  a  bleak,  freezing  Decem- 
ber day,  a  desperate  battle,  commonly  known 
as  the  "Great  Swamp  Fight,"  was  fought 
to  a  bitter  end.  It  was  the  dreadful  mas- 
sacre of  Fort  Mystic  all  over  again.  As  in 
the  Pequot  War  of  forty  years  before,  the 
attacking  party  forced  an  entrance  into  the 
fort  and  completed  their  work  of  destruc- 
tion by  fire.  Exposure  and  cold,  added  to 
the  flames,  reduced  the  Indians  quickly. 
They  sacrificed  several  hundred — either 
slain  outright  or  taken  prisoners — but  the 
English  also  suffered  severe  losses. 

Though  the  spirit  of  the  Narragansetts 
was  broken,  the  people  of  the  mainland 
towns  were  greatly  alarmed.  The  General 
Assembly,  meeting  at  Newport  in  the 
spring  of  1676,  urged  them  to  give  up  their 
homes  and  take  refuge  on  the  Island  of 
Rhode  Island.     Newport  and  Portsmouth 


KING  PHILIP'S  WAR  195 

generously  offered  land  for  planting  and 
even  proclaimed  that  the  new-comers,  "so 
wanting  a  liberty,  shall  have  a  cow  kept 
upon  the  commons."  Many  families  ac- 
cepted the  invitation  with  haste  and  thank- 
fulness. The  protected  stretch  of  land  in 
Narragansett  Bay  became  a  perfect  isle  of 
refuge.  The  entire  town  of  Warwick  moved 
thither  and  remained  until  the  war  was  over. 
It  was  the  safest  thing  that  could  be  done, 
for  shortly  afterwards,  the  settlement  was 
practically  burned  to  the  ground.  Only  one 
dwelling  remained  standing. 

Many  Providence  people  emigrated  also, 
including  Mrs.  Williams.  Of  the  five  hun- 
dred inhabitants,  less  than  thirty  remained 
behind.  Prominent  in  the  list  of  those  "who 
stayed  and  went  not  away,"  is  the  name  of 
Roger  Williams.  He  did  not  know  the 
meaning  of  fear  and  preferred  to  defend 
his  city  rather  than  join  the  fugitives  on  the 
island.  He  had  not  been  able  to  turn  aside 
the  savage  tide  of  fury  and  hate,  but  at 
least  he  could  stem  it  as  far  as  possible. 
Though  over  seventy  years  old,  he  accepted 
a    commission    as    captain    and    faithfully 


196  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

drilled  the  few  defenders  under  his  com- 
mand. In  addition,  he  started  a  subscrip- 
tion list  to  pay  for  fortifying  a  house  and 
building  a  second  defence  and  himself 
pledged  the  largest  sum  of  all — ten  pounds. 
And  he  was  far  from  being  a  rich  man,  too. 

On  March  29,  1676,  the  city  was  attacked 
by  the  Indians  and  twenty-nine  dwellings 
burned.  The  following  tradition  shows  that 
even  at  this  late  hour  Roger  Williams  at- 
tempted to  change  the  will  of  the  savages. 

Leaning  on  his  staff,  he  went  to  the 
heights  at  the  north  of  the  town  to  meet 
them  and  reason  with  them  as  he  had  done 
so  many  times  in  the  past. 

"Massachusetts,"  said  he,  "can  raise 
thousands  of  men  at  this  moment,  and  if  you 
kill  them,  the  King  of  England  will  supply 
their  places  as  fast  as  they  fall." 

"Well,"  answered  one  of  the  chieftains, 
"let  them  come.  We  are  ready  for  them. 
But  as  for  you.  Brother  Williams,  you  are 
a  good  man.  You  have  been  kind  to  us 
many  years.  Not  a  hair  of  your  head  shall 
be  touched." 

Quaker  Rhode  Island  at  last  woke  up 


KING  PHILIP'S  WAR  197 

and  paid  some  attention  to  the  question  of 
defence.  It  was  all  very  well  to  hold  theo- 
ries about  the  wickedness  of  war,  but  these 
ideas  did  not  insure  safety  for  one's  family 
or  keep  the  natives  at  bay.  The  colony  rec- 
ords show  that  closely  following  the  attack 
upon  Providence,  a  boat  patrol  was  organ- 
ized, a  garrison  provided,  and  ammunition 
ordered.  Care  was  taken  that  the  duties  of 
the  commander  in  charge  should  not  inter- 
fere with  "Captain  Williams'  power  in  the 
exercise  of  the  train  band." 

Canonchet  was  captured  in  April.  He 
was  surprised  by  some  Connecticut  men 
and  friendly  Indian  allies,  and,  in  attempt- 
ing to  escape  by  wading  a  river,  slipped  and 
fell  an  easy  prey  to  a  waiting  Pequot  on  the 
opposite  bank.  He  was  taken  captive  to 
Connecticut.  As  his  father  Miantonomo 
had  lost  his  life  at  the  hands  of  Uncas,  so 
now  the  son  owed  his  death  to  Uncas'  son. 
In  many  ways  the  earlier  tragedy  was 
enacted  over  again.  Canonchet  showed  the 
same  disdainful  pride  that  Miantonomo  had 
displayed.  In  answer  to  an  Englishman 
who  questioned  him,  he  replied  scornfully, 


198  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

"You  much  child!  No  understand  matters 
of  war!  Let  your  brother  or  chief  come. 
Him  I  will  answer!"  Being  told  that  he 
must  die,  he  said  calmly,  "I  like  it  well;  I 
shall  die  before  my  heart  is  soft,  or  I  have 
said  anything  unworthy  of  myself." 

The  tide  had  turned.  It  needed  now  but  a 
final  struggle  to  convince  the  natives  they 
were  fighting  against  hopeless  odds.  Phil- 
ip's wife  and  son  were  taken  captive  in  the 
summer.  Soon  afterwards,  a  decisive  bat- 
tle took  place  near  Mount  Hope  on  August 
12th.  Philip,  betrayed  by  one  of  his  men, 
was  killed.     This  ended  the  war. 

The  citizens  of  Providence  came  back  to 
their  partly  burned  town  and  took  up  their 
daily  duties  once  more,  but  with  a  greater 
sense  of  security.  Providence,  son  of  Roger 
Williams,  took  his  mother  home  from  New- 
port in  a  sloop  that  belonged  to  him. 

The  Wampanoags  were  nearly  extermi- 
nated, while  scarcely  a  hundred  Narragan- 
setts  survived.  Captives  were  sold  into  slav- 
ery, either  at  home  or  abroad.  With  this 
fate  in  store,  Philip's  young  son  of  nine 
years  was  shipped  to  Bermuda. 


KING  PHILIP'S  WAR  199 

The  buying  and  selling  of  Indians  was  al- 
lowed even  within  the  borders  of  hberal 
Rhode  Island.  The  people  of  that  day  were 
not  so  enlightened  as  their  descendants  of  a 
later  age  and  saw  no  wrong. in  such  a  pro- 
ceeding. Then,  too,  they  doubtless  looked 
upon  the  subjection  of  the  red  men  as  a 
means  of  safety.  Yet  this  colony  was  far 
more  humane  than  her  neighbors.  The  in- 
habitants passed  a  law  prohibiting  Indian 
slavery  for  life  and  those  unfortunate  war- 
riors who  were  held  as  bondmen  served  a 
limited  term  of  years  only. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

BACK  TO  THE  SHADOWS 

After  King  Philip's  War,  Roger  Wil- 
liams, now  an  old  man,  gradually  disap- 
peared from  public  view.  Only  now  and 
then  do  we  obtain  fleeting  glimpses  of  these 
last  years.  We  know  that  at  one  time  he 
was  elected  assistant,  but  declined  to  serve. 
This  by  no  means  meant  that  his  interest  in 
the  colony  had  ceased,  but  rather  that  the 
burden  of  years  and  physical  ills  had  re- 
duced his  strength  and  endurance.  He  still 
followed  closely  the  course  of  events  and 
whenever  a  word  from  him  could  further 
the  cause  of  right,  his  voice  was  heard  with 
all  its  old-time  vigor. 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  his  life  was  to 
write  an  earnest  letter  to  the  town  of  Provi- 
dence upholding  the  just  levying  of  taxes. 
Clearly,  logically,  he  explained  to  the  in- 
habitants the  necessity  of  supporting  gov- 
ernment and  order,  as  they  tended  to  the 
peace  and  good  of  mankind.     He  also  re- 


BACK  TO  THE  SHADOWS  201 

minded  them  how  fortunate  they  were  to 
hve  under  such  a  charter  as  they  possessed, 
for,  said  he,  "Our  charter  excels  all  in  New 
England,  or  in  the  world,  as  to  the  souls  of 
men." 

Again,  when  the  people  of  Providence 
proposed  to  divide  certain  common  lands 
among  themselves,  he  pleaded  that  they  be 
left  untouched  for  the  use  of  future  new- 
comers who  might  have  to  flee  from  persecu- 
tion. To  the  very  last,  soul  liberty  was  dear 
to  his  heart. 

"I  have  only  one  motion  and  petition," 
were  his  stirring  words,  "which  I  earnestly 
pray  the  town  to  lay  to  heart,  as  ever  they 
look  for  a  blessing  from  God  on  the  town, 
on  your  families,  your  corn  and  cattle,  and 
your  children  after  you,  it  is  this,  that  after 
you  have  got  over  the  black  brook  of  soul 
bondage  yourselves,  you  tear  not  down  the 
bridge  after  you,  by  leaving  no  small  pit- 
tance for  distressed  souls  that  may  come 
after  you." 

Both  before  and  after  the  war,  he  spent 
considerable  time  preaching  to  the  English 
dwellers  in  the  Narragansett  coimtry  and 


202  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

it  is  very  probable  that  he  had  Indian  con- 
gregations also.  Once  a  month,  for  many- 
years,  he  jom'neyed  back  and  forth,  between 
his  own  home  at  Providence  and  Mr.  Smith's 
at  Narragansett,  for  this  purpose.  It  is  re- 
markable that  a  man  of  his  advanced  age, 
handicapped  by  lameness  and  illness,  could 
have  carried  on  such  a  work  as  long  as  he 
did. 

When  he  was  finally  forced  to  give  up  ac- 
tive life,  he  then  turned  to  profitable  occu- 
pation indoors.  He  valued  time  and  made 
the  most  of  it.  "One  grain  of  its  inestimable 
sand,"  he  once  said,  "is  worth  a  golden 
mountain."  After  such  a  long  life  of  faith- 
ful service,  he  could  have  been  excused  had 
he  chosen  to  sit  still  in  the  twilight  of  his 
life  with  folded  hands.  Instead,  by  the 
home  fireside  he  put  together  the  sermons  he 
had  preached  with  an  idea  of  having  them 
published.  He  never  saw  them  in  print. 
The  fact  that  he  had  to  apply  to  those  of  his 
friends  in  his  own  colony,  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut  and  Plymouth  "who  hath  a 
shilling  and  a  heart  to  countenance  such  a 
work"  to  meet  the  expenses  of  publication. 


BACK  TO  THE  SHADOWS  203 

shows  that  he  must  have  been  poor  at  this 
time.  The  written  pages  numbered  but 
thirty  and  the  cost  of  their  printing  could 
not  have  been  an  exorbitant  sum. 

There  is  every  reason  to  think,  in  fact, 
that  Roger  Williams  and  his  wife  were 
partly  dependent  upon  their  son  Daniel  to- 
ward the  close  of  their  lives.  And  he  cared 
for  them  with  true  filial  devotion,  too.  "I 
judge,"  he  said  in  the  quaint  language  of 
that  age,  "they  wanted  nothing  that  was 
convenient  for  ancient  people."  Instead  of 
saving  for  the  proverbial  rainy  day,  the 
open-hearted  founder  of  Rhode  Island  had 
generously  disposed  of  the  best  of  his 
worldly  possessions  for  the  good  of  others. 
Give,  give,  give!  It  had  been  the  motto  of 
his  life.  Said  this  same  son,  "He  gave  away 
his  lands  and  other  estate  to  them  that  he 
thought  were  most  in  want,  until  he  gave 
away  all,  so  that  he  had  nothing  to  help  him- 
self. ...  If  a  covetous  man  had  that  op- 
portunity as  he  had,  most  of  this  town  would 
have  been  his  tenants,  I  believe." 

The  humble  home  in  which  Roger  Wil- 
liams spent  his  Providence  days  was  very 


204  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

likely  much  like  that  of  his  neighbors.  They 
were  truly  primitive  dwellings — those  early 
houses — usually  consisting  of  a  single  large 
room  down  stairs,  one  end  of  which  was 
taken  up  by  a  generous  stone  chinmey,  and 
a  half-story  loft  above,  reached  by  a  steep, 
ladder-like  flight  of  stairs.  As  family  needs 
increased,  a  "lean-to"  was  added  to  the  main 
structure.  Even  so,  there  must  have  been 
scarcity  of  elbow  room  in  those  days  of 
sizable  families  and  free  hospitality. 

Neither  the  exact  day  nor  month  of 
Roger  WiUiams'  death  is  known.  Like  the 
date  of  his  birth,  it  remains  a  mystery.  The 
nearest  we  can  come  to  it  is  that  it  must  have 
been  some  time  between  January  16th  and 
May  10th,  1683.  No  reliable  record  has 
ever  been  found,  and  the  only  facts  that 
have  come  down  to  us  regarding  the  close 
of  this  noble,  self-sacrificing  life  consist  of 
two  mere  fragments  of  information.  The 
one,  a  brief  extract  from  a  letter  written 
by  one  John  Thornton  from  Providence  to 
his  friend,  Samuel  Hubbard,  at  Newport, 
the  other,  a  line  from  a  Colonial  historian, 
are  as  follows: 


BACK  TO  THE  SHADOWS  205 

"The  Lord  hath  arrested  by  death  our  an- 
cient and  approved  friend,  Mr.  Roger  Wil- 
hams." 

"He  was  buried  with  all  the  solemnity 
the  colony  was  able  to  show." 

Out  of  the  shadows  he  came,  back  to  the 
shadows  he  returned.  The  death  of  the 
Apostle  of  Soul  Liberty  was  nothing  more 
than  the  slightest  ripple  on  the  surface  of 
the  life  of  the  community.  The  people  with 
whom  Roger  Williams  lived  had  no  concep- 
tion of  his  real  greatness.  It  remained  for 
a  later  age  to  appreciate  him  and  his  work. 

Yet  there  is  an  interesting  tradition  which 
would  seem  to  show  that  nature  at  least  did 
her  best  to  save  him  from  oblivion.  He  was 
buried  in  the  family  plot  at  the  rear  of  his 
dwelling  on  the  slope  of  the  hill  which  led 
up  from  the  bubbling  spring  where  he  first 
landed.  When,  in  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
city,  it  became  necessary  to  remove  the 
graves  of  the  early  settlers,  there  was  found 
in  Roger  Williams'  last  resting-place  only 
the  spreading  root  of  an  apple  tree  which, 
in  the  passing  years,  had  taken  on  a  curious 
resemblance  to  the  himaan  form. 


206  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

The  personal  belongings  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams at  the  close  of  his  life  must  have  been 
few  and,  for  the  most  part,  of  no  great 
value.  Still  at  least  two  priceless  relics  may 
be  seen  to-day  which  have  survived  the  wear 
and  tear  of  time.  One  of  these — a  pocket- 
compass — he  used  to  "steer  his  course"  on 
that  momentous  journey  from  unfriendly 
Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  shores  of  Narra- 
gansett.  At  the  base  of  the  instrument  are 
the  usual  pivoted  needle  and  points  of  the 
compass.  There  is  a  sun-dial  above,  the 
shadows  being  thrown  upon  hours  cut  in 
the  brass  rim  around  the  edge  of  the  case. 
The  compass  was  mentioned  in  an  inventory 
made  by  Providence  Williams  in  1686.  It 
became  a  treasured  family  heirloom  in  the 
years  that  followed  until  it  found  a  perma- 
nent home  in  the  rooms  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Historical  Society. 

What  thrilling  stories  the  little  compass 
might  tell  if  it  could  only  speak — of  New 
England  woods  bowed  down  with  their 
mantle  of  snow  through  which  the  weary 
traveler  plodded  his  way,  of  days  and  days 
when  the  wintry  sun  made  no  record  upon 


Roger  Williams'  pocket-compass  and  sun-dial  with  cover.  This 
photograph  was  taken  at  the  rooms  of  the  Rhode  Island  His- 
torical Society. 


Roger  Williams'  watch.  It  is  now  kept  at  Fraunces 
Tavern,  New  York  City,  but  is  the  personal  property 
of  Mr.  Henry  Russell  Drowne,  whose  family  received 
it  from  a  lineal  descendant  of  Roger  WilUams. 


BACK  TO  THE  SHADOWS  207 

the  sun-dial  face,  of  lurking  savages  whose 
suspicion  was  changed  to  glad  greeting  once 
they  recognized  the  fugitive,  of  welcome 
wigwams  where  the  fare  was  crude  but  hos- 
pitably offered. 

The  other  Roger  Williams  relic  is  an  odd, 
old-fashioned  silver  watch,  with  works  of 
Dutch,  and  case  of  French,  manufacture. 
It  is  heavy  and  cumbrous,  measuring  an  inch 
and  a  half  in  thickness,  with  rock  crystal  in 
place  of  glass.  The  carved  silver  face  has 
hands  of  gold  and  the  day  of  the  month, 
which  changes  every  twenty-four  hours. 
The  exterior  case  (for  it  is  a  double-case 
watch)  represents  the  familiar  scene  from 
the  "Iliad,"  where  Hector  takes  an  affec- 
tionate farewell  of  Andromache  and  their 
small  son  Astyanax: 

"  Thus  having  spoke,  the  illustrious  chief  of  Troy 
Stretched  his  fond  arms  to  clasp  the  lovely  boy. 
The  babe  clung  crying  to  his  nurse's  breast, 
Scared  at  the  dazzling  helm  and  nodding  crest. 
With  secret  pleasure  each  fond  parent  smiled, 
And  Hector  hasted  to  relieve  his  child. 
The  glittering  terrors  from  his  brows  unbound, 
And  placed  the  beaming  helmet  on  the  ground." 


208  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

It  is  believed  that  Roger  Williams'  wife 
and  children  survived  him,  but  incidents 
of  Mrs.  Williams'  life  are  tantalizingly 
meagre.  There  were  six  children — the  old- 
est daughter  Mary,  born  in  Plymouth,  Free- 
born, born  in  Salem,  Providence,  the  first 
male  child  in  the  new  colony,  a  third  daugh- 
ter Mercy,  and  two  other  sons,  Daniel  and 
Joseph. 

Of  the  oldest  child  Mary — the  little  maid 
of  Plymouth  and  the  first  who  came  to  glad- 
den her  mother's  and  father's  heart — almost 
nothing  is  known. 

Fortunately,  Freeborn's  history  is  less 
mysterious.  She  married  a  young  shipmas- 
ter by  the  name  of  Hart  and  made  her  home 
in  Newport  with  her  four  children.  After 
her  husband's  death,  she  had  the  courage  to 
marry  Walter  Clarke,  who  had  been  twice 
a  widower  and  was  the  father  of  seven 
children. 

Providence,  a  shop-keeper  and  shipmas- 
ter of  Newport,  never  married. 

Mercy  Williams  became  the  wife  of  Re- 
solved Waterman  and  the  mother  of  five 
children.     She  was  married  a  second  time 


BACK  TO  THE  SHADOWS  209 

to  Samuel  Winsor.  Their  son  Samuel  be- 
came minister  of  the  Baptist  Church  in 
Providence.  In  one  point  he  agreed  heart- 
ily with  his  grandfather  Roger — ^that  minis- 
ters should  receive  no  pay  for  their  services. 
With  something  of  his  kinsman's  spirit,  he 
refused  invitations  to  Sunday  dinners  "for 
fear  they  should  be  considerations  for  Sun- 
day sermons." 

Daniel  Williams  married  Rebecca  Power, 
a  widow  whose  husband  had  been  killed  in 
the  "Great  Swamp  Fight."  It  fell  to  Roger 
Williams'  lot  to  record  the  marriage,  for  he 
was  then  town  clerk.  He  described  it  as 
"the  first  marriage  since  God  mercifully 
restored  the  town  of  Providence."  Daniel's 
children  numbered  five  sons. 

Joseph  Williams,  the  youngest  child, 
married  Lydia  Olney,  who  survived  him 
only  three  weeks.  They  had  three  sons.  In 
Roger  Williams  Park,  Providence,  may  be 
seen  the  old  family  burial  plot  of  Joseph 
Williams  and  his  descendants,  containing 
weather-beaten  stones  bearing  old-fashioned 
inscriptions.  That  of  the  head  of  the  family 
is  quaint  enough  to  be  given  a  place  here: 


210  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

"  In    King    Philip's    War    he    courageously    went 
through, 
And  the  native  Indians  he  bravely  did  subdue; 
And  now  he's  gone  down  to  the  grave  and  he 

will  be  no  more, 
Until  it  please  Almighty  God  his  body  to  restore 
Into  some  proper  shape  as  he  thinks  fit  to  be, 
Perhaps  like  a  grain  of  wheat,  as  Paul  sets  forth, 
you  see." 

In  all  probability  Joseph  Williams  did 
his  duty  during  the  terrible  Indian  scourge, 
yet  we  prefer  to  dwell  upon  those  earlier, 
pleasanter  days  when  the  friendship  of  the 
red  man  had  not  turned  to  distrust  and 
hatred. 

Roger  Williams  Park  recalls  that  period, 
for  it  was  formerly  the  woodland  and  fields 
given  by  Canonicus  and  Miantonomo  to  the 
white  neighbor  and  friend  they  always  loved 
and  respected.  In  time  it  became  the  pos- 
session of  Miss  Betsy  Williams,  who  be- 
queathed it  to  the  city  in  memory  of  her  fa- 
mous and  well-beloved  ancestor.  The  hun- 
dred acres  have  since  been  beautified  and 
added  to  until  to-day  the  picturesque  stretch 
of  park-land  is  one  of  the  most  attractive 
in  the  United  States — a  fitting  and  beautiful 


BACK  TO  THE  SHADOWS  211 

memorial  to  the  great  man  whose  name  it 
bears. 

Miss  Wilhams  attached  one  condition  to 
her  gift — that  a  statue  of  Roger  Wilhams 
should  be  erected  by  Providence.  The  con- 
dition was  met  and  to  Mr.  Franklin  Sim- 
mons of  Rome  was  entrusted  the  important 
but  difficult  task  of  trying  to  express  in 
granite  and  bronze  something  of  the  nobil- 
ity of  one  of  the  greatest  of  Americans. 

Roger  Williams  has  also  been  awarded  a 
niche  in  the  "Hall  of  Fame  for  Great  Amer- 
icans" at  New  York  University.  He  is  one 
of  an  illustrious  company  of  wonderful 
characters  who  have  made  America — and 
the  world — better  for  their  having  lived. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  in  the  hearts  of  all  true 
Americans  that  Roger  Williams  should  be 
given  the  most  cherished  place.  The  prin- 
ciples for  which  he  stood  have  so  long  been 
recognized  and  accepted  by  the  world  that 
we  are  apt  to  forget  there  ever  was  a  time 
when  they  were  new  and  startling.  All  the 
more  honor,  then,  is  due  him  for  having  had 
the  courage  of  his  convictions  when  it  meant 


212  ROGER  WILLIAMS 

unpopularity,    misunderstanding    and    suf- 
fering. 

"  Aye,  let  the  Muse  of  History  write 
On  a  white  stone  his  honored  name, 
Loyal  to  liberty  and  light. 

First  on  Rhode  Island's  roll  of  fame. 

*'  While  Church  and  State  would  '  hold  the  fort ' 
With  sword  and  scourge  and  penal  fires. 
His  faith  a  broader  haven  sought, 
The  faith  that  welcomes  and  aspires. 

"  While  credal  watchwords  rise  and  fall. 
His  banner  to  the  winds  unfurled. 
Proclaimed  on  Freedom's  outer  wall, 
Peace  and  Good-will  to  all  the  world. 

"  Well  may  the  Muse  of  History  place 
Foremost  among  the  just  and  free. 
His  honored  name,  wherein  we  trace 
The  soul  of  Law  and  Liberty." 


o/v.  14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY— TEL  NO.  642-3405 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


— nr 


REC'D  LD   NO 


1/  ir69-ypM 


DEC  1  7 1969  1  5 


RCCPLD  flFm8'69-8PW 


LD21A-60m-6,'69 
(J90968l0)476-A-32 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


rT„-^°.^'"aJI-ibrary 

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